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CORNERSTONES
OF COMPRESSION www.compressortech2.com JANUARY 2026
CORNERSTONES COROLLARY: EVOLUTION OF PIPELINES AND COMPRESSOR STATIONS The Cornerstones of Compression series has highlighted many significant products over more than 160 years of continuous progress. This is the sixth of seven (formerly six) Cornerstones of Compression corollary articles that provide a look the evolution of natural gas pipelines and compressor stations. By Norm Shade
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The largest early natural gas pipeline company, Hope Natural Gas Company, was organized in 1899, operating in West Virginia and western Pennsylvania. Among the archives at the Coolspring Power Museum is a 1930 notebook that documents the history and the engine and compressor inventory of each of the 86 compressor stations that made up the Hope Natural Gas Company and their subsidiaries Reserve Gas Company and Hope Construction & Refining Company
1 Hope Natural Gas Co. Engines and Compressors By Manufacturer.
up to that time. The stations included gas gathering and boosting, natural gasoline production, and gas transmission services, ranging in size from 50 to 22,025 hp (37 to 16,424 kW). There were 411 units in total, and the variation in equipment was impressive. The majority of the engines and compressors were produced by companies located in Pennsylvania or New York, which were prevalent in early air compressor and gas engine and compressor manufacture. The rest came from companies in the industrial midwestern states of Ohio and Wisconsin.
Readership survey MANUFACTURER
Allis Chalmers Bessemer Blaisdell Bury Carter Clark Climax Cooper Hamilton Ingersoll-Rand Jacobson LaidlawDunn-Gordon National Transit Nordberg Rathburn Jones Reeves Strait Snow Waukesha Westinghouse Worthington Totals
HORIZONTAL GAS ENGINE
VERTICAL GAS ENGINE
HORIZONTAL GAS ENGINECOMPRESSOR
HORIZONTAL BELT-DRIVEN COMPRESSOR
HORIZONTAL STEAM ENGINECOMPRESSOR
STEAM TURBINE
TOTAL UNITS
0 62 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0
1 20 0 0 0 70 0 11 0 0 0
0 12 2 1 4 0 0 0 0 52 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 3 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 94 2 1 4 70 2 11 6 55 1
0
0
0
1
0
0
1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 64
0 0 2 3 0 0 6 5 0 18
76 0 0 0 1 19 0 19 0 217
0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 8 85
9 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 26
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1
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R
ecent issues of Cornerstones of Compression articles described the gas engines and compressors at sixteen early compressor stations of the Ohio Fuel Gas Company, which was organized in 1902. The equipment covered a wide range of ratings and was provided by a number of manufacturers primarily from Ohio and western Pennsylvania, which is where oil and gas production boomed at the time.
The entire inventory by manufacturer and type of equipment is shown in Table 1. The earliest machines were 85 belt-driven horizontal compressors. The majority, 52, were manufactured by Ingersoll-Rand, which adapted their extensive line of air compressors for natural gas and oil field applications. Bessemer manufactured 12 of these units, with the rest supplied by six other companies as shown in Table 1. Most of these horizontal compressors were belt-driven by 62 Bessemer horizontal gas engines. In addition, 18 were belt-driven by vertical gas engines manufactured by Waukesha, Westinghouse and several other companies. Interestingly, one large IngersollRand horizontal reciprocating compressor was belt-driven by a Westinghouse steam turbine. As indicated in Table 1, over half of Hope’s fleet were horizontal gas engine
Demand booming, challenges remain REGAL REXNORD RECERTIFICATION EXPANSION
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CORNERSTONES EVOLUTION OF PIPELINES
EXECUTIVE Q&A HOERBIGER’S AREK 86 DYRDOL 1
1 2 3 1 24 6 25 15 411
EURO REPORT TAP EXPANDS CAPACITY
JANAURY 2026 | COMPRESSORTECH2 | 49
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