LAKE PLACID - Ten years ago, when Debbie Vaughn started volunteering in the Adirondack Scenic Railroad gift shop, she never imagined that one day she'd be driving the train between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake.
But that's just what she's doing after recently getting her engineer's license from the Federal Railroad Administration.
Vaughn, who lives in Saranac Lake, is the only woman on the Adirondack Scenic Railroad who's an active engineer and the first woman engineer on the train's northern route.
"I never thought I would want to be an engineer," she said. "To be honest I never thought I would want to work on a train. Now that I'm doing it, I love it."
Vaughn credits her father, Bob Sofield, for getting her interested in the railroad when train service returned to Saranac Lake and Lake Placid in 1999.
"He roped me into it, along with my mother and my brother," she said.
Like many volunteers, Vaughn started as a car host, responsible for greeting passengers, taking tickets and helping people on and off the train.
She then moved up through the ranks, becoming a trainman trainee, trainman, student conductor and eventually a conductor, a position Vaughn has held since 2003.
"All of these positions required a lot of training," she said.
As an engineer, Vaughn's primary job is to drive the train. It sounds simple, but the first time she did it was "nerve-racking."
"It's scary," she said. " Now that I am an engineer it's fun and I'm loving it, but when you first start it's very intimidating."
A qualified engineer supervised Vaughn during the training process. And there's a lot to learn.
"There's two sets of brakes," she said. "There's a horn, whistle and a bell. At a crossing you've got to turn on your bell, do your whistle, and you've got a conductor on the radio while you're applying brakes. You've got people in cars trying to get through the gates. You've got to be able to keep a level head."
Pete Snyder, the railroad's Lake Placid-based operations manager, said they've been impressed with the job Vaughn's done so far.
"We're very proud of her," he said. "It's a tough job being an engineer but she has a feel and a knack for it. She's good at it and we're pleased."
Vaughn, who also has a full-time job as an area manager for the cleaning company Janitronics, encouraged others to volunteer on the railroad.
"It's hard work," she said. "But if you like people and you enjoy talking about the area, it might be for you."
---
Contact Chris Knight at 891-2600 ext. 24 or cknight@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.
