Birmingham Dribbler or carpet railway describes a type of very early

model railway Railway modelling (UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland) or model railroading (US and Canada) is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modelled at a reduced scale. The scale models include locomotives, rolling stock, streetcars, t ...

. It is a bit of a misnomer, as the railway featured a model

live steam Live steam is steam under pressure, obtained by heating water in a boiler. The steam is used to operate stationary or moving equipment. A live steam machine or device is one powered by steam, but the term is usually reserved for those that ar ...

railway locomotive, but no track – the locomotive was simply run across the floor. In some cases, the front wheels were even made steerable so that they could be run in a circle without track. Evidence is required of individual examples, but it is believed they first appeared in the 1850s and became generally popular in the latter part of the 19th through to the early 20th century. The

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

s were very simple, usually made in

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other with ...

, with a pair of simple oscillating cylinders driving the main wheels. They were basically a

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central h ...

mounted on wheels, although simple decoration (usually bands of lacquer) was sometimes applied. Track was not used – the boiler was filled with water, the burner lit, and when steam was being produced, the locomotive was placed on the floor and allowed to run until either the water or fuel ran out or the engine crashed into the furniture. Very quickly, after a number had exploded, simple safety valves were fitted. They quickly gained the nickname of Birmingham Dribblers (or sometimes "Piddlers"), as large numbers of them were made in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, England, and they had the unfortunate habit of leaving a trail of water behind them as they ran across the floor. Very often this trail would be mixed with the fuel used for the burner, and there were numerous incidents of fires caused by the locomotive crashing into furniture and over-turning so that the burning fuel was spilled over the floor. As time passed, embellishments were added, such as wooden

buffer beam A headstock of a rail vehicle is a transverse structural member located at the extreme end of the vehicle's underframe. The headstock supports the coupling at that end of the vehicle, and may also support buffers, in which case it may also be k ...

s, buffers and

steam whistle A steam whistle is a device used to produce sound in the form of a whistle using live steam, which creates, projects, and amplifies its sound by acting as a vibrating system (compare to train horn). Operation The whistle consists of the fo ...

Recent models

Not all Birmingham Dribblers are Victorian antiques. In the late 1970s to 1990s, a brass, self-assembly kit for a Birmingham Dribbler model was manufactured by Maxwell Hemmens Precision Steam Models of Yorkshire, UK. Completed models are still available from John Hemmens.Birmingham Dribblers from John Hemmens
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References

{{Reflist Miniature railways with unknown track gauge Rail transport modelling Steam power History of Birmingham, West Midlands Live steam