Woman Driver
The first woman locomotive engineer on the Santa Fe Valley Division — a groundbreaking story of grit, camaraderie, and a love for running trains.
Coming soon — be the first to know when it's available.
A Railroad Story Like No Other
I loved running trains. As a child, it was a career I would have never considered — because I was a girl. But because of federal legislation, opportunities finally opened for women in the 1970s in fields that had been closed to them before. For me, that place was the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in Richmond, California. I was hired in September of 1974.
In 2015, through several railroad Facebook groups, I reconnected with many of the people I'd worked alongside on the old Valley Division — and met other women railroaders from across the country. Inspired, I began writing stories about becoming one of the first women locomotive engineers in the United States: the characters I met, the work I loved, and what railroading was like in the 1970s and 80s, before everything changed.
The stories in Woman Driver are about a time and a railroad that can now only be found in books — and in the memories of the men and women who worked for the old Santa Fe.
Life on the Valley Division
" The stories of women walking directly into the lion's den — into blue-collar, industrial, dangerous, and testosterone-laden jobs — are not well known. And these stories are even more important in the current political climate in which women's rights are being rolled back. "
Francis J. Capalbo — Locomotive Engineer, BR&W Railroad
Patricia Lollis
In 1974, Patricia Lollis was hired as an engineer trainee by the Santa Fe Railroad — one of the very first women to hold that position in the United States. She wrote this collection of short stories to preserve her memories of the difficulties and joys she encountered on the job, and to chronicle what railroading was like in the 1970s and 1980s.
She came to love the work and met many good people along the way. She also wanted to preserve a small slice of the history of the Valley Division — part of a once great railroad, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe.
Coming soon — be the first to know when it's available.
Woman Driver
Woman Driver is in pre-release. We'll email you the moment it's available.