Railway & Locomotive Historical Society names scholarship recipients

The Railway & Locomotive Historical Society has selected seven students to receive $4,000 scholarships each.

Now in its seventh year, the R&LHS scholarship program awards funding to students pursuing higher education in fields related to rail operations or history. Undergraduate and graduate students pursuing degrees in history, engineering, transportation or transportation logistics or other degrees with demonstrated connections to rail are eligible for the program, organization officials said in a press release.

This year's recipients are:

• Gabrielle Saldana of Yuba City, California. Saldana is a business administration finance major at California State University, Chico. She comes from a two-generation rail family and aspires to work in the industry as well. She completed a summer internship with Union Pacific Railroad in marketing and sales, and will continue with UP as a year-round intern while working toward a December 2026 graduation.
• Aaron Murawski of Oak Forest, Illinois. He is pursuing a degree in civil engineering at Purdue University Northwest and hopes to apply his expertise to the safe and efficient operation of railroads.
• James Walker of Woodstock, Georgia. Walker is attending Georgia Southern University and working toward a bachelor of business administration degree in supply chain management with an emphasis in logistics and intermodal transportation. Upon graduation he hopes to join a Class I in operations or intermodal strategy.
• Kylie Bedel of Evansville, Indiana. Bedel is pursuing a master of science degree in agricultural economics at Kansas State University. Her thesis research focuses on comparing barge freight and rail grain shuttle movements from the Midwest to New Orleans. She graduated from Purdue University in 2025 with a double major in agribusiness management and animal science and has held two internships at UP in marketing and sales. She is also a two-time past recipient of the R&LHS scholarship.
• Hayden Vitz of Riverdale, New Jersey. Vitz is majoring in rail transportation engineering at Penn State-Altoona. He is the president of the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association student chapter three, and he has held two internships at Railroad Construction Co.
• Kelvin Ortiz of Winter Haven, Florida. He is a civil engineering student at Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico-Orlando. He seeks to work in transportation planning and engineering, with a focus on rail and multimodal systems. Following graduation, he plans to pursue graduate studies in transportation engineering.
• Nathan Ives of Brookline, Massachusetts. Ives is attending Furman University, studying urban studies and theater. He is a member of the Boston Street Railway Association, has contributed to the association's magazine, maintains a YouTube channel about Boston railroads and is an intern at Keolis. Following graduation, he plans to pursue a master's degree in transportation and a career in commuter-rail planning.

R&LHS scholarships are bestowed in the names of late members who endowed them: George W. Hilton, Edward Myers and Bruce R. Ward.

Hilton was an economics professor at UCLA, an accomplished historian and an author. A longtime member of R&LHS, he died in 2014 at age 89. Ward was a California engineer who worked for Lockheed Corp. and was a live-steam model railroad enthusiast, steam historian and photographer. He died in 2010. Myers, of Matteson, Illinois, was a member of the R&LHS for more than 35 years. He was the editor of the trade journal Modern Railroads for 25 years until he retired in 1980. He died in 2003 at age 89.