Equipment

	In July of 2001, members of the Shenandoah Valley Steam & Gas Engine Association began working on a project with the U.S. Army's Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Aberdeen, MD, to acquire two antique and vintage diesel engines and the generators these engines powered. The generators were dismantled and moved to Berryville, VA sometime in 2002. The following pictures were taken May 20, 2005 as the engines were being loaded for transport to Berryville, VA.
SVS&GEA member Charlie Gray took charge of this project with the help of Mike Lanham, Rick Custer, Lee Sisk, and Wayne Godlove. Charlie's main contact person at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds for this project was Bob Solyan. Kenny McCoy and his crane crew from the APG, along with Donald Harris and Ronnie Keithley assisted in this project and helped to get these engines loaded on the transport trucks.

	The project team members as well as all of the members of the Shenandoah Valley Steam & Gas Engine Association want to thank Bob Solyan, Donald Harris, Ronnie Keithley, Kenny McCoy and his crane crew, and the lady photographer who took these pictures....all of these people who braved the rain and winds to help us get these engines loaded for transport.
We also want to say a BIG THANK YOU to Ron Parks of VBR Construction Company, Ernie's Towing & Hauling of Martinsburg, WVA as well as Pine Knoll Trucking of Winchester, VA for helping to get these engines loaded and moved to Berryville for us. The weather was totally miserable that day but everyone involved persevered and helped our Club bring these two engines to their new home in Berryville, VA.
	We also want to say a BIG THANK YOU to the two truck drivers who made this possible. Kevin Shade from Ernie's Towing & Hauling as well as John Clem of Pine Knoll Trucking braved the rain and bad weather right along with the rest of this project crew to help get these two engines loaded.
	These engines were manufactured by Worthington, sometime in the late 1920's. They were put into service at the U.S. Army's ammunition testing facility, Aberdeen Proving Grounds, in Aberdeen, MD in the late 1920's powering two 200 KW generators.
Each engine is rated at 293 brake horsepower and weighs 32,800 pounds. They each have 5-cylinders. They were last powered and used in 1984.

Pictured at left is a 1939 Ingersoll-Rand 8PLVG natural gas engine, serial number 8AZ100. This engine was the first of six PLVG engines to have been produced. This engine was shipped from Ingersoll-Rand's Painted Post, NY manufacturing plant on April 20, 1939 to the Texas Public Service water pumping plant in Beaumont, TX, where it remained in service driving a large Ingersoll-Rand water pump until October 2002.

The SVS&GEA's PLVG engine is a spark-ignited natural gas fueled engine having a 14.5-inch bore x 18-inch stroke with a rating of 650 HP at 300 RPMs. The model letters stand for Large Vee Gas engine. The letter P designates this engine as a power engine rather than in Integral Engine-Compressor. Production of the PLVG engines was discontinued after the 1942 introduction of the KVG integral engine compressor and the 1943 introduction of the PKVG engines.

The Texas Public Service water pumping station in Beaumont, TX later became the Lower Neches Valley Authority water pumping system. The PLVG engine arrived at the SVS&GEA club house in January 2003. Pictured at left is John DeBoskey, SVS&GEA Vice President Steve Giles, and SVS&GEA Treasurer Wayne Godlove.