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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017
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Love of locomotives
RYDER DOPP, 16, IS PART OF A VOLUNTEER TEAM RESTORING VINTAGE “NO. 21 BALDWIN”
By HEATHER DOUGLAS
For EO Media Group
W
hile many teens choose to spend
their free time on social media,
16-year-old Ryder Dopp spends his
Saturdays with fellow volunteers
many times his age restoring an antique steam loco-
motive nicknamed the “No. 21 Baldwin.”
The core crew — led by Astoria Railroad Preser-
vation Association President John Niemann — has
been chugging away on the project for more than
two decades inside a rusty metal shop near the tracks
between the Portway Tavern and Astoria Trolley
Barn.
A workhorse
Offi cially known as the “Santa Maria Valley No.
21,” the vintage locomotive in her prime was a work-
horse pulling loads of sugar beets, vegetables and
petroleum products along the 36-mile Santa Maria
Valley Railroad line in Southern California. When the
railroad fell on hard times, it was purchased at a sher-
iff’s auction for $75,000 by oil tycoon and philanthro-
pist George Allan Hancock.
A very wealthy man, Hancock’s family was
friends with Walt Disney and owned The La Brea Tar
Pits. When the No. 21 was ‘retired’ in 1962, a small
book called “The Final Run of #21” shows photos of
Disney on the train.
The locomotive ended up in Astoria in a way remi-
niscent of the Astoria Riverfront Trolley’s origins.
The No. 21, like the trolley, was found disas-
sembled in a fi eld in Snoqualmie, Washington. The
antique steam engine was sold by the Hancock family
to an unidentifi ed owner who had hoped to restore the
machine but abandoned the mission. In 1991, Nie-
mann and the Preservation Association jumped at the
opportunity to purchase the relic for $17,000.
The community helped raise enough money to
lift and transport the pieces to Astoria — a task that
required six trucks. Once the locomotive was settled
into the shop, Preservation Association volunteers
stripped the engine’s paint, then sandblasted, cleaned
and primed it in preparation for assembling it.
Their ultimate goal from day one: to restore No. 21
to the fresh condition it was in when the locomotive
departed the Baldwin shops in 1925, and, one day, to
run it as a tourist train along the Columbia River.
Put right to work
In 2015, Ryder Dopp — the son of Diana Kirk
and Steve Dopp — had just moved with his family
from Portland to Astoria. He noticed a sign across
the street from his new house: “Astoria Steam Res-
toration Shop.”
Soon, the teen was at the shop offering his services.
“I could see the sign from my window and fi gured
I’d just be put to work sweeping the fl oors or some-
thing,” he recalled, “but I think they put me right to
work grinding handles the fi rst day.”
He has been fascinated by trains ever since his
grandfather gave him a train set when Dopp was a
child; he can’t remember a time when he wasn’t in
love with them.
“You know those DVDs of trains at the library?
I would just sit and watch them for hours,” he said.
“I’ve always had a passion for it.”
Dopp, an Astoria High School student, also has a
paid part-time job as a summer camp counselor with
the Astoria Recreation Center. But he isn’t worried
about donating his time to the No. 21.
“How many people can actually say that they’ve
done an interesting thing in their life like working on
a steam engine? I’m honored to be able to do this,”
he said. “Later in life, you’re not going to remember
playing video games with your friends. It’s the expe-
riences that matter more than the objects.”
Photos by Thomas Kittel
TOP: Ryder Dopp untan-
gles an air hose inside the
smoke box of No. 21.
RIGHT: John Niemann
(foreground), president
of the Astoria Railroad
Preservation Association,
adjusts a piece on the hor-
izontal mill, while volun-
teer Mark Clemmens works
atop the broiler.
Reading and volunteering
A love of reading is what ultimately led Dopp
to become a volunteer at age 11 when he lived in
Portland.
“I volunteered with the Multnomah County
Library system for many years,” he said. “I took
the bus there by myself. I’ve always been really
independent.”
After volunteering at several libraries through-
out Portland, Dopp became one of the youngest vol-
unteers to manage the “Summer Reading Program”
through Multnomah County Library at the Holgate
location.
“My family is really into reading and every sum-
mer we did the summer reading program at the
library. I was also encouraged to get up and go do
things socially with other people,” Dopp said. “When
I moved to Astoria, kids my age were not quite as
active in the community. I got into the train resto-
ration to give myself something interesting to do. It
can be a sleepy little town here sometimes.”
The old technology
Photo by Heather Douglas
Though he is the youngest volunteer, the group
treats Dopp as a team member.
“I feel that I fi t in well with them,” he said. “Some
of them have worked on the railway and military,
and I just sit and listen to their stories. I fi nd that
interesting.”
Jim Smith, a fellow volunteer, said of Dopp’s
involvement: “It’s pretty cool. We’re all old — we
gotta have somebody to take over!”
With guidance from Dave Hill (far left), Dave Hamilton (middle left) and Jim Smith (far right), Ryder Dopp (cen-
ter) uses a cheater bar to tap a hole for a drain valve.
See LOCOMOTIVE, Page 2C