They’ve been good friends for more than 25 years and are now newly qualified train drivers. But Beate Gross and Peggy Franke have what might seem an unlikely background for a career on the railways. The two friends from Leipzig both used to work as hairdressers. They have always looked out for each other right from the early days. When Peggy's model dropped out during her hairdressing exam, her friend Beate stepped in. Having recently passed her test to become a train driver, Beate is now busy getting to know the routes she will be driving.
A lifelong ambition
Beate has always loved trains. Even when she was just 16, she wanted to join the old Deutsche Reichsbahn. "I always wanted to do something traditionally seen as a man’s job," she says. "So joining the railway was the obvious choice." But that didn't work out at the time. She applied unsuccessfully to become a chimney sweep and a precision engineer before training, somewhat reluctantly, as a hairdresser. That was when she met Peggy. "We knew right away that we were on the same wavelength and had lots in common." The two are inseparable to this day.
From left to right: Newly qualified train drivers Beate Gross and Peggy Franke.
Moving heavy loads
After leaving the hairdressing salon, Peggy discovered an invitation on Facebook to a DB event for career changers. She asked friends for advice and was soon eager to give it a go. "The idea of having a job where my small actions could move huge loads was very exciting," she says. As a single parent, Peggy was looking for a job where she would not have to spend too many nights away from home. "I also wanted something that was crisis-proof with a great employer," she explains. She found all that at DB Cargo.
From the classroom to the driver’s cab
When Peggy started her driver training in March 2022, she was very ambitious: "I wanted to pass the exam the first time." That moment recently arrived and Peggy was able to operate her first train as a qualified driver. Today, Peggy and Beate are just two of 160 female train drivers at DB Cargo in Halle, increasing the proportion of female drivers to 5%. And neither of them are afraid of stupid comments: "Of course, you sometimes hear people saying dumb things. But we have both been around the block a few times and never let it get us down."
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