R&LHS Awards $32K in 2025 Scholarships – Railway Track and Structures
The Railway & Locomotive Historical Society has awarded a record eight scholarships in 2025. Each award is worth $4,000, up from $3,000 in all five previous years, for a total of $32,000. Several of the recipients have participated in internships with Class I railroads—two with Norfolk Southern and one each with Union Pacific and CSX Transportation.
The program is open to undergraduates (second, third, and fourth year) and graduate students, who are majoring in history, transportation, transportation logistics, engineering, or any other field with a demonstrated connection to railroad history, operations, engineering, or economics.
R&LHS President Robert Holzweiss said, “Congratulations to the eight scholarship recipients. Your exemplary achievements and demonstrated potential have earned this well-deserved recognition. I wish you continued success in your academic endeavors and encourage you to consider a career in the railroad industry or a railroad-related field upon the completion of your studies.”
Scholarships are given in the names of those who endowed them: Edward Myers, Bruce Ward, and George Hilton. In the program’s first five years, R&LHS awarded scholarships to 22 students, the most at one time being five in 2024.
The students are:
Kylie Bedel of Evansville, Ind., graduated from Purdue University in 2025 with a B.S. double major in agribusiness management and animal science, and is now pursuing an M.S. in agricultural economics at Kansas State University. A specific interest of hers is the symbiotic relationship between railroads and the producers of agricultural commodities. She has had two internships at Union Pacific in marketing and sales.
Eilish Bennett of Centerville, Tenn., is working on an M.S. in transportation technology and policy at the University of California, Davis. She also holds a B.S. in agricultural and resource economics from the University of Tennessee and completed a Fulbright grant in the rural Czech Republic, where she experienced accessible rail travel firsthand. Currently, she is a graduate researcher at the National Center for Sustainable Transportation, working on a project involving best practices/ridership modeling for high-speed rail implementation in the United States.
Aiden Drohr of Wentzville, Mo., is a student at Maryville University, where he is pursuing a B.A. in history. His lifelong fascination with railroads led him to his current job as a staff tour guide at the National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis. His career goals include obtaining an M.S. degree in museum studies and a career in rail preservation.
Matthew Friar of Portland, Ore., is working on an M.S. in civil engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He holds a B.S. in engineering physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a graduate assistant at the Texas Railway Analysis and Innovation Node and was an undergraduate research assistant at the Illinois Rail Transportation and Engineering Center. He envisions a career working for government agencies in pursuit of improvement of rail passenger infrastructure.
Aidan Kelley of Altoona, Pa., is working toward a B.S. in civil engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He has had several internships, including one in Norfolk Southern’s Maintenance of Way Department. His career goal is to work in railroad operations, in management, engineering, or infrastructure planning.
John Keyser, of Middlebury, Ind., is a student at Purdue University, where he is working on a B.S. in agricultural engineering. He makes the connection how railroads are vitally related to agriculture and other industries. This summer he was an intern at Norfolk Southern, working in its Maintenance of Way Department.
Emerson Mitchell of Columbia, S.C., is working on a B.S. degree in civil engineering and railroad engineering at the University of South Carolina. He has an undergraduate research assistantship and is president of the campus chapter of AREMA, the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association. This summer he worked as an engineering intern at CSX Transportation in the Bridges, Design & Construction Department. Beyond railroads in general he has a specific interest in public transportation.
Maddock Thomas of Decatur, Ga., is a senior pursuing a B.A. degree in Urban Studies at Brown University. He has written a white paper, “Putting America Back on Track,” and is now working on two manuscripts about the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad ahead of its bicentennial. Last summer, he worked in operations planning at MTA New York City Transit, and this summer he was with Keolis Commuter Services in Boston. He is currently applying for post-grad jobs in railroading/public transit, while also considering pursuing a Ph.D. in transportation.
R&LHS is North America’s oldest rail history group, founded in 1921. Besides the scholarship program, the 2,200-member organization publishes the scholarly journal Railroad History, provides research grants, and honors the best in railroad journalism, photography, videography, and lifetime achievement with its annual Railroad History Awards.
George W. Hilton was an economics professor at UCLA, an accomplished historian, and an author with many bylines in Trains magazine. Readers of that periodicalin the 1960s frequently came across his articles, as he was a favorite of then-editor David P. Morgan. He also wrote books on railroads and ships, including The Ma & Pa (Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad), Great Lakes Car Ferries, and The Night Boat. A longtime member of R&LHS, he died in 2014 at age 89.
Bruce R. Ward (1934-2010) was a California engineer who worked for Lockheed Corp., and was a live-steam model railroad enthusiast, steam historian, and photographer.
Edward T. Myers of Matteson, Ill., a member of the R&LHS for more than 35 years, was editor of the trade journal Modern Railroads for 25 years when he retired in 1980. He died in 2003 at age 89.
Information on award deadlines and how to apply for a 2026 scholarship can be found at https://rlhs.org/WP/scholarship-info/.
