The class of brass-built, spirit fired, toy locomotives commonly called 'dribblers' are likely the first ever commercially made model railway products in the world. Until now, it has been generally taken that the first were the products of significant London instrument makers in the 1840s and 1850s. This article sets out to prove that this is mistaken. Using close object analysis coupled with trade directories and census records, it demonstrated that, regardless of the names they bear, they were all the product of a single individual, seemingly working without any significant competition between c1845 and the early 1860s.