(The following story by Richard Weir appeared on the Boston herald website on July 19, 2010. Vincent Hayhurst and Brian Hayhurst are members of BLET Division 57 in Boston. Paul Hayhurst is a member of BLET Division 312 in Boston.)
BOSTON — Kids love trains, and Vicki Hayhurst loves the smiles she sees on their faces when they spot her behind the controls of one.
“You have these little kids who hang out on the platforms. They have these big grins on their faces and they’re waving at you. You’re like a celebrity. That is one thing that will never get old,” said Hayhurst, 25, one of the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company’s dozen newly minted class 1 passenger engineers.
Hayhurst attended a graduation ceremony Friday in South Station marking her completion of the MBCR’s intensive yearlong locomotive training program, known as “engine school,” that includes 10 weeks of classroom sessions on such subjects as airbrake systems and diesel engine theory and 1,000 hours of field practice.
There were three other women in her class – the most ever for the MBCR – who will join the 14 women already among the MBCR’s 170 engineers operating its diesel locomotives. Hayhurst has been navigating trains on the rails out of North Station for a few weeks now after getting her certification last month.
For the Dracut native, piloting a locomotive is in her blood.
Her father, Vincent Hayhurst, 55, has been an engineer for more than 30 years, first with the Boston and Maine Railroad and later with MBCR. Her uncle, Paul Hayhurst, is an engineer for Amtrak, where her brother, Brian, 33, got his start before becoming an MBCR engineer. Another brother, Kevin, 31, is a conductor.
“There’s the family history, keeping up with the family tradition,” Hayhurst, who spent three years working as a conductor, said of her reasons for applying to engine school. “However, I think there is some allure to the prestige of the position. There’s so much more to being an engineer, there’s a lot more knowledge and responsibility that comes along with it.”
And there’s the look of awe from the kids, like the 12-year-old boy who approached her last week at Haverhill station.
“He comes up to me on his bike and says, ‘Are you driving this train?’ I said, ‘I am.’ And he said, ‘That’s really cool.’ ”
She added, “I’ve even had mothers walk by with their daughters and say, ‘Do you see that? That’s a girl driving that train.’ It felt great to hear that, like I was a little bit of a role model. This has been typically thought of as a man’s job, but we can show that women can become whatever they want.”