The same family has been eating lunch in Tiny Town's picnic scene for over 40 years. A tiny mechanized sandwich goes up and down down to a picnicker's mouth many times a minute, every day, all year long.
Tiny Town is a miniature railroad world with landmarks and features made out of sawdust, bailing wire, can bottoms, and scraps. It has outlasted many other Hot Springs attractions. Maybe it's because it started with the vision of one Frank Monshinskie (an ex-plumber), but soon became a family project for the rest of the Moshinskies.
Tiny Town tourism promo brags that the most expensive thing used in constructing it cost $4. They also continue to add things, and we haven't been there in a while, so our inventory may be woefully out of date. In the late 1990s they were building a section called the "Yard Sale," reflecting the economic state of the middle of the country at that time.
Scores of miniature figures are depictions of once famous celebrities: Sammy Davis Jr, Donny and Marie Osmond, Laverne and Shirley, the Fonz, Dolly Parton, and Mr. T were still on the promenade. Danny Thomas stands in front of St. Jude's Hospital. The figures are hollowed out with old an dentist's drill to make room for little motion mechanisms. Vanna White and Ronald Reagan dodder back and forth.
In one section, Elvis plays Love Me Tender while Miss Kitty waves from the balcony. Indian canoes in a real water stream are powered by an old washing machine pump. Trees are made of aluminum foil.
The actual scale is inconsistent throughout Tiny Town -- a tugboat is the same size as an ocean liner. This adds to its charm, naturally. For inspiring landmarks, there's a diminutive Mt. Rushmore and a Christ of The Ozarks.
It's all fun to examine, and we find ourselves not paying much notice to the trains. "Model railroaders are real serious," notes Frank's son Charles. "We have humor here." He then points to a farmer in an outhouse, with light that tourists can flick on with a button.
