The Story of a Pageant Queen and Rail Training Supervisor 👑🚊

One of the biggest joys of the job for Rail Training Supervisor Krista Stone is pulling into a platform and seeing excited children waving at her. Girls tend to light up when they see a woman at the controls; Krista remembers one, with boundless enthusiasm, point and exclaim, “That’s a girl operator, mommy!”

While it’s become more common for women to helm MAX trains over the course of Krista’s 13-year tenure at TriMet, it’s still a male-dominated career path. Visibility is important, Krista says, because it sets an example for women of all ages—you, too, can do this. But she never envisioned the sort of visibility she signed up for this spring, when she took up the mantle of Mrs. Sandy.

Pageants? She’d never considered them. But that changed when she saw a Facebook post on a community forum looking for the next Mrs. Sandy for the Mrs. Oregon America & Miss Oregon for America Strong Pageant. “What little girl has never wanted to be a beauty pageant queen? That little girl inside of me said, ‘I do,’” Krista said.

On a whim, Krista doffed her grey TriMet uniform and work boots in favor of high heels, a sash and even a little tiara, at least in pin form. These are the trappings of what you might expect from the pageant experience, but there was also something deeper: a strong support system. “We laugh all the time and really support each other, and it’s really changed my idea of pageants—for the better,” Krista said. The women come from all walks of life and vary in age, and Krista found that appealing. There was a sense of camaraderie throughout the whole experience, Krista said, because it was less about winning and more about coming together as a group and building each other up. And to Krista, that’s just like TriMet.

One of the biggest joys of the job for Rail Training Supervisor Krista Stone is pulling into a platform and seeing excited children waving at her. Girls tend to light up when they see a woman at the controls; Krista remembers one, with boundless enthusiasm, point and exclaim, “That’s a girl operator, mommy!”

While it’s become more common for women to helm MAX trains over the course of Krista’s 13-year tenure at TriMet, it’s still a male-dominated career path. Visibility is important, Krista says, because it sets an example for women of all ages—you, too, can do this. But she never envisioned the sort of visibility she signed up for this spring, when she took up the mantle of Mrs. Sandy.