SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — As it marks 70 years of service, the San Diego Rescue Mission is preparing to host its annual Thanksgiving Community Outreach Meal on Saturday, Nov. 15, welcoming those experiencing homelessness or hardship for a day of food, care and connection.

SDRM will open its doors at 120 Elm St. to nearly 1,000 San Diegans in need, offering a full Thanksgiving meal, free haircuts and showers, backpacks filled with essentials, and access to support services.

The Thanksgiving feast will be served from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., with volunteers providing roast turkey and all the traditional trimmings. Mobile shower trailers and haircut stations will operate from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and guests can also connect with medical providers, pet care teams and spiritual counselors on-site.

Transportation will be available through the Rescue Mission’s “HOPE” vans, which will provide free rides to and from the event for individuals staying at the City’s O and B safe camping sites, as well as the Neil Good Day Center between 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

“This year marks 70 years of the San Diego Rescue Mission serving San Diego, and Thanksgiving is the perfect time to celebrate what that really means to us — that’s lives changed and hope restored,” said Donnie Dee, President and CEO of the San Diego Rescue Mission. “We’re not just providing a meal; at our Thanksgiving tables, we’re building trust with our unhoused neighbors so that when the time is right for them, they know they can come to us for help with getting off the streets and into a life of stability and hope.”

To make this celebration possible, the Rescue Mission’s kitchen is preparing more than 2,600 pounds of food and 1,000 slices of pie. The organization encourages community members to help by donating — each Thanksgiving meal costs just $2.72.

San Diegans can learn more or make a donation at sdrescue.org.

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Drivers may be feeling a little more pain at the pump this week. The average cost for a gallon of gas in San Diego has gone up nearly 15 cents from a week ago, according to the latest data from AAA.

As of Tuesday, the current average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas in San Diego was reported to be $4.85. That’s about two cents more than Monday’s average and 15 cents up from a week ago.

Meanwhile, the average cost of a gallon of premium gas on Tuesday was about $5.26, also about two cents more than Monday’s average of $5.24 and 15 cents more than last week’s average, which was $5.10.

The cost of diesel also increased, although not by as much. The average price for diesel on Tuesday was $5.06 per gallon compared to Monday’s $5.04 and last week’s $5.03.

According to GasBuddy, the cheapest gas in San Diego County can be found at Horizon Fuel Center, located at 31267 Valley Center Road in Valley Center, which listed $3.99 for a gallon of regular gas as of Tuesday.

It’s followed by a few gas stations in Oceanside with $4.13 for a gallon of regular gas, as well as Express Gas on 8602 Lake Murray Blvd. in San Diego with regular gas at $4.15 per gallon.

Of the 18 museums in Balboa Park, only one is in a basement. The San Diego Model Railroad Museum is the successor to a rich history of model railroading in the park.

That history began in 1935, when a pioneer model railroader named Minton Cronkhite built a 40-by-70 foot model railroad exhibit for the California Pacific International Exposition.

Fast forward to 1981, when both the San Diego Model Railroad Association and the La Mesa Model Railroad Club were searching for new homes. They petitioned the city of San Diego for space and got the 27,000 square foot basement of the Casa de Balboa.

But the museum’s size isn’t the only thing that sets it apart.

“The Model Railroad Museum is very unique when it comes to how museums function,” said Michael Warburton. He took over as executive director of the museum a couple of months ago.

“All of the layouts that are in the museum are actually run by independent clubs. And so these clubs represent different types of trains, different scales, and even different philosophies around modeling,” Warburton said.

Besides the museum’s original tenants, there are two other clubs running exhibits there. One is the San Diego Society of N Scale, focused on some of the smallest model trains. The San Diego 3-Railers is the other club, operating toy trains and other accessories in a room called the Toy Train Gallery.

That corner of the museum is a veritable extravaganza of sights and sounds. There are trains, of course, but there are also incredibly detailed buildings and even a drive-in theater!

That, and everything else here is thanks not only to museum staff, but also the hundreds of volunteers who show up week in and week out to engage in their passion of running the rails.

They include Benji Foust, a member of the La Mesa Model Railroad Club. At 23 years old, he is living proof that model railroading is not a hobby limited to the older set.

“This is a semi-prototypical model of the Tehachapi Pass, which is here in California,” Foust said while showing his club’s model of the rail line that runs through the Tehachapi Pass, linking Bakersfield to Mojave.

Like the real life rail line, this model is a marvel. It’s a two-level HO scale layout with a total of more than 30 scaled miles of mainline track. In layman’s terms, that means they’ve recreated a 30-mile stretch of that line, in a scale 87 times smaller than the real track.

The standards are exacting.

“Part of being part of this club is the prototype accuracy. We’re really diving into the actual specifics of what trains went over this layout, what cars, what engines, stuff like that. We’re getting into the time period of the cars and accuracy and all that,” Foust said.

The trains may be the centerpiece, but there is so much more that goes into making this museum special.

“Model railroading is such, I call it a super hobby, actually, because it incorporates so many different hobbies in one thing: painting, sculpture, electronics, wood working, all kinds of things that come together in this one super hobby,” Warburton explained.

The museum works to spread enthusiasm about model railroading beyond its walls. A big part of that is education.

“Schools can come here and do programs and projects here. We can also go to schools and do programs and projects. We have adult clinics that we do as well,” Warburton said.

But at the heart of it all is the fascination with and the enjoyment of trains.

“Just being able to work here and watch my train go around the layout is a pleasure,” Foust said as he worked the control of the massive Tehachapi model railroad.

And then there’s the joy of watching others watch the trains.

“The reaction of kids just being so excited to see the trains running and see them running over bridges and things like that … If we could bottle that excitement, it would be amazing, right?” Warburton said as a child screamed with glee watching one of the trains.

Bottle-able? Maybe not. But gett-able — definitely! All it takes is a visit to the San Diego Model Railroad Museum, where it’s all aboard for a trip into a treasure trove of tiny trains.