BBC News
By Jon Kelly
As Scotland s only woman freight train driver, Heather Waugh was already a pioneer. Then a tragedy from her past inspired her to take on a new mission - getting men to talk about their mental health.
When it was time to set off, Heather briskly pulled a handle towards her: Star Trek-style , she said, deadpan, as though she were Mr Sulu putting the USS Enterprise into warp speed. But this wasn t a spaceship; it was a British Rail-vintage Class 90 locomotive. Its motors growled, then the train shuddered forward.
Behind her, container wagons stretched down the line for three-quarters of a mile. It wasn t Heather s job to know what sort of cargo she was carrying, just how much it all weighed - tonight, a little under 1,500 tonnes - and whether it included anything hazardous. Her task was to drive the lot of it south through the valleys of lowland Scotland and beyond.