The nine member NRHS Grants Review Board awarded ten grants totaling $30,000 on July 1, 2002. The announcement of the recipients was made from the NRHS National Office.

The NRHS received 58 grant applications totaling $242,000 that covered a wide range of projects. The Grants Review Board announced ten grants totaling $30,000 and would have awarded additional grants had our budget been larger. The grant criteria included applicability to railway history, preservation, cost with a budget; execution schedule, matching funds raised (grants require matching funds), additional fund raising plans, specific use of funds, safety, project urgency, duplication, NRHS membership, and visibility.

The NRHS regrets that it was not able to award more money to support other projects for which it received applications as many of the prospective projects were extremely significant and worthy efforts; The Grants program is funded by donation.

Since 1991 the NRHS has awareded 76 grants totaling $190,880 to 46 NRHS Chapters and 30 to non-NRHS organizations.

The applicants awarded grants in 2002 were as follows:

$1000 to the Champlain Valley Chapter - NRHS, Burlington, Vermont for the proper storage cartons, file folders, and custom sized binders needed to preserve the Sterns Jenkins Collection of materials on all of the modern rail systems that have operated in Vermont since 1900 and on most of the predecessor lines that made up these later systems. The collection will be housed at the University of Vermont in the Bailey/Howe Library and will be accessible to researchers.

$1200 to the Railroad Museum of Long Island, Greenport, New York for stripping the exterior paint from ex-Long Island Rail Road "Double-Decker" Coach #200. This unique, aluminum, prototype car was built in 1932 at the Altoona Shops by a consortium of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Aluminum Company of America. Not only is Car #200 the lightest passenger car ever built but the patented seating arrangement also increased seating capacity.

$2000 to the Ohio and Little Kanawa Division, Parkersburg, West Virginia for a new floor and air conditioning system so that their 1910 Pullman manufactured, all steel Denver and Rio Grand Railroad Co. passenger car located at Depot Park, Belpre, Ohio may be used for railroad museum displays, a meeting room, and a small workshop.

$2300 to the North Alabama Chapter - NRHS Railroad Museum, Huntsville, Alabama for a temporary crossover between the main line track of the Norfolk Southern and the museum track. The crossover will enable several cars and three locomotives to be moved onto the museum property for display and tourist rides.

$2500 to the Erie and Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation Society, Parsippany, New Jersey to purchase six original ceiling fixtures and to have 13 wall fixtures manufactured from an original prototype. Diner #741 is at Steamtown in Scranton, Pennsylvania and NRHS RailCampers will perform part of the work.

$3000 to the Rochester Chapter - NRHS, Rochester, New York to replace the roof on the Chapter's Industry Depot by a professional contractor.

$3000 to the Collis P. Huntington Chapter - NRHS, Huntington, West Virginia to refurbish cosmetically an N&W old style signal tower, a C&O waterspout, and a Baldwin W-6 Locomotive (C&O #1308) at the Chapter's museum.

$5000 to the Heritage Museum, Libby, Montana for the purchase of materials, specialized labor, and services necessary to stabilize and halt the further deterioration of Shay Locomotive #1643.

$5000 to the Friends of East Broad Top, Inc., Richmond, Virginia to purchase the machined wheel-and-axle assemblies needed to complete the reproduction wood-beam passenger trucks for the East Broad Top Railroad combination passenger-baggage car No. 16.

$5000 to the Virginia Museum of Transportation, Inc., Roanoke, Virginia to reassemble, paint, and otherwise preserve the Norfolk and Western Class A steam locomotive #1218.