I wanted to let you know about five Worthington horizontal gas compressors that I think are still in place in Hooker, Oklahoma. I worked at this location for five years, it was owned by Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America. The site was sold to another gas company and the engines were shut down and bypassed in the 1990s. I’m not sure who owns them now, I was transferred when ownership of the station changed.
They are early- to mid-1940s Worthington outside cam gas engines, 24 inch x 36 inch. They said they were rated at 1,750hp at 125rpm. The engines were turbocharged sometime in the 1960s or ’70s. There’s a large turbocharger in the basement for each engine. I loved being able to work around these wonderful engines. I took a bunch of pictures when I worked there, and some at another site that had horizontals. Those are sadly gone. The small photo was taken in the 1980s. They gave those out when they shut down the station. The other photo is recent and was taken by a former coworker. Everything looks like they are still in there. The GPS coordinates for the engines are 36.8328211,-101.2618014
Bryan Cosby
bcosby243@kc.rr.com
Pretty spectacular engines, Bryan. You were definitely lucky to get to work around them, and we really hope they’re still on site in the building. We’re looking forward to getting the color negatives you mentioned in your email and sharing them with GEM readers. – Editor
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