Woman tops engineers' seniority list at LIRR

When 20-year-old Victoria "Vicki" Trepicione decided to learn to be an engineer for the Long Island Rail Road, she was only the third woman in the railroad's history to graduate to that job, she said.

Some 32 years later, she has made history again. Last month, Trepicione became the first woman in the 177-year history of the LIRR to top the engineers' seniority list.

"It's almost a surreal kind of feeling," Trepicione, now 51, said, chatting from her cab inside an idle train at Hempstead on Tuesday afternoon. "I've certainly seen a change over the years. There are women now in all the departments, and that's a wonderful thing."

Trepicione joined the LIRR in 1979 and now has been working on the railroad longer than any other train engineer. Over the years and miles she's covered, she has seen the LIRR transform from a place where having a female engineer was a novelty, to one in which the entire agency is run by a woman.

"Vicki exemplifies the dedication of the LIRR workforce," LIRR president Helena Williams said. "She's an unsung hero of the LIRR. Customers rarely see the engineer operating the train, but she does it week after week, meeting the schedule. The fact that she's a woman shows the strides we have made in the workplace."

Trepicione applied for a job as an engineer trainee at the urging of her sister, who worked for the LIRR as a conductor. An Adelphi University student at the time, Trepicione had little thought of building a career operating trains.

"I didn't know what career path I wanted to take at the time. I just sort of fell into it because I didn't know what I wanted to do. It was just a great job," she said. "And it was the best decision I ever made."

SEE PHOTOSLIRR trains and commuters through the years

The Babylon mother's railroading career was nearly dashed when she was furloughed in 1981. But she was soon called back to the job, and said she hopes her story inspires the 22 recently furloughed LIRR engineers to "have heart."

Mickey Quinn, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen's Division 269, called Trepicione an "exemplary employee" and a "pioneer" for women in the railroading industry.

"I'm sure she faced some sort of hard times from back then being a female in a man's occupation," said Quinn, whose membership numbers nearly 400 LIRR engineers. "It's a milestone in a career to become number one on our roster here, because it does take a lot of time . . . and a lot of sacrifice."

Although Trepicione recalled that when she began at the LIRR, her colleagues were "99.9 percent white men," she said most everyone was supportive of her career decision.

In fact, most of Trepicione's memories from her three decades on the LIRR are good ones, but for some days when driving a train was especially challenging.

"Mother Nature certainly put on a show many times," said Trepicione, who listed 1994's winter ice storm as the worst conditions during which she worked. "Everything was sheets of ice."

Trepicione's time at the top of the seniority list won't last long, as she plans to retire later this year. She said she will miss the people, but looks forward to spending time with her husband and two college-age daughters.

"It was a large part of my life," Trepicione said. "I've actually worked here longer than I didn't."