Rating: 
Summary: Railroad Father
Review: "Set Up Running" is not a book of dry statistics of Pennsy RR trackage, assets, debits, or passenger-miles served. Neither is it a sensational narrative of harrowing accidents, up-set locomotives, or exploded boilers (although O.P. does have a few close scrapes, and the line of rail jacks exploding one after another as his massive 2-10-0 freight locomotive thunders down a track under repair sets the reader on the edge of his chair). No, this book is better than those sorts of books because it brings a man--actually two men--to life. We come to know O. P. Orr very well indeed through the eyes of his son, the author, John W. Orr, and we end up knowing John as well.This book shows American history as it should be written--giant machines moving the citizens and the commerce of the land, a huge railroad corporation with all the bureaucratic "snafus" of any multi-layered business as those snafus are seen by and sometimes affect the career of an engineman, the impact of the Great Depression on one family as typical of America as any could be. Historical facts are all here, but they are facts as seen by two very real, very human people, a father and a son. Were all history books written so well, we would all understand history far better and read it far more willingly. My own grandfather was an engineman, through his road was the Frisco rather than the Pennsy, and my own father was a great lover of trains, though his career paths took him in a different direction. I came along late in my father's life, and, by the time I had the ability and the leisure to write about him, he was gone and his history with him. "Set Up Running" is the type of book I wish someone could have written about my own father, and I know of no higher praise than that. This is a book for railroaders, historians, Americans, and every father's child. At the end, I hated to have to say good-bye to O.P.--and to his son John--but I left knowing much more about the first half of 20th Century America, and I really enjoyed the telling.
Rating:
Summary: Railroad Father
Review: "Set Up Running" is not a book of dry statistics of Pennsy RR trackage, assets, debits, or passenger-miles served. Neither is it a sensational narrative of harrowing accidents, up-set locomotives, or exploded boilers (although O.P. does have a few close scrapes, and the line of rail jacks exploding one after another as his massive 2-10-0 freight locomotive thunders down a track under repair sets the reader on the edge of his chair). No, this book is better than those sorts of books because it brings a man--actually two men--to life. We come to know O. P. Orr very well indeed through the eyes of his son, the author, John W. Orr, and we end up knowing John as well. This book shows American history as it should be written--giant machines moving the citizens and the commerce of the land, a huge railroad corporation with all the bureaucratic "snafus" of any multi-layered business as those snafus are seen by and sometimes affect the career of an engineman, the impact of the Great Depression on one family as typical of America as any could be. Historical facts are all here, but they are facts as seen by two very real, very human people, a father and a son. Were all history books written so well, we would all understand history far better and read it far more willingly. My own grandfather was an engineman, through his road was the Frisco rather than the Pennsy, and my own father was a great lover of trains, though his career paths took him in a different direction. I came along late in my father's life, and, by the time I had the ability and the leisure to write about him, he was gone and his history with him. "Set Up Running" is the type of book I wish someone could have written about my own father, and I know of no higher praise than that. This is a book for railroaders, historians, Americans, and every father's child. At the end, I hated to have to say good-bye to O.P.--and to his son John--but I left knowing much more about the first half of 20th Century America, and I really enjoyed the telling.
Rating:
Summary: A Book I couldn't put down!
Review: As a child we had a Lionel train platform at Christmas and I loved them. For a summer evening out my dad would often take my brothers and me for a walk to the Frankford Junction in Philadelphia, PA to watch the trains. It was a train a minute back then. Fast ones, slow ones, freight and passengers were all to be seen. I loved the steam engines - they were alive - on fire if you will. Waving to the engineer in the 1950's was like a kid meeting a pro athelete or rock star today. Heros in the days of hard work. They always waved back! That is all I wanted to be - an engineer. John Orr's book about his dad and his life as a train engineer has given me the opportunity to be up there with a real engineer, in the cab, in the yard, on the road, for a whole career. Of course, I actualy never got to work on, or for, the railroad because by the time I was old enought, the Pennsy and most of the others were dying due to economic conditions. This book was writen as well as any book has ever been. It is a work of art. It is a history book with a soul. It is a history book with a story. If you like trains, if you like industrial or social history, if you only want to read a well written book on a subject you just wish to visit once, this is mandatory reading. Thank you John Orr. Thank you O.P.
Rating:
Summary: Review by former PRR employe
Review: As a former operating department official of the PRR and railroad consultant for 25 years I give this book the highest rating. It is easy reading, sometimes hard to put down and with very few technical errors, not enough to quibble over. I am writing a glowing review of this book for the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society's quarterly magazine "The Keystone." Alan B, Buchan
Rating:
Summary: Not only a biography of the man, but the locomotives as well
Review: I am basically a collector of railroad biographies, every occupation from the President down to locomotive watchman, and I have to say that this has to be one of the best I have ever read. In fact, I would call this book a miracle. The details! The mind bending information that the author relays about his father's years of working as a locomotive engineer on the Pennsylvania Railroad is astounding. Just the everyday stories, the trips he made, the people he worked with, and the locomotives, the intricate details about each type, the power, how they handled..........incredible!! There is stuff in this book that guys who wrote first hand accounts don't even include.
If you ever wanted to know what it was like to operate a steam locomotive then this is absolutely the book to read.
I'll stop here because I can't say enough good things about this book.
Rating:
Summary: Not only a biography of the man, but the locomotives as well
Review: I am basically a collector of railroad biographies, every occupation from the President down to locomotive watchman, and I have to say that this has to be one of the best I have ever read. In fact, I would call this book a miracle. The details! The mind bending information that the author relays about his father's years of working as a locomotive engineer on the Pennsylvania Railroad is astounding. Just the everyday stories, the trips he made, the people he worked with, and the locomotives, the intricate details about each type, the power, how they handled..........incredible!! There is stuff in this book that guys who wrote first hand accounts don't even include.
If you ever wanted to know what it was like to operate a steam locomotive then this is absolutely the book to read.
I'll stop here because I can't say enough good things about this book.
Rating:
Summary: Should Be on Your RR Bookshelf!
Review: No matter what your railroad interest you'll find this oral history of Pennsy engineer Oscar Orr hard to put down. If you enjoy operations there are vivid descriptions of the daily chess moves that dispatchers and crews are forced to make on a single track helper district. Those devoted to locomotives will find details on the idiosyncracies of the Pennsylvania stable from the first half of the century. History buffs will enjoy watching the railroad town of Ralston go from boom to bust. Hidden in the chronicle of Orr's career is the history of industrial America, a time when "Company Man" was an accolade and clean overalls a symbol of pride in work. We are so lucky that deceased Trains Magazine editor David P.Morgan encouraged John Orr to pen his father's tales and that the University of Pennsylvania published them.
Rating:
Summary: A "must read" for every dedicated railroad buff
Review: Set Up Running: The Life Of A Pennsylvania Railroad Engineman, 1904-1949 is the personal story of Oscar P. Orr, who operated steam-powered freight and passenger trains throughout Central Pennsylvania and South Central New York. For forty-five years, Oscar sat at the controls of many famous stem locomotives; moved trains loaded with all manner of freight from coal to perishables, and encountered virtually every situation a locomotive engineer confronting railroad transportation in the first half of the twentieth century. Biographer John Orr is Oscar's son and tells his father's life as a railroad engineer with candor and attention to detail (including his father's first encounter with an automobile along the right-of-way) that weaves anecdote with compelling railroad history. Set Up Running is a "must read" for every dedicated railroad buff!
Rating: 
Summary: Incredible insights on a working man's life on the railroad
Review: This book brings to life the hard, gritty and dangerous life of working on the railroad. While there's a ton of romaniticized railroad books, this one give the reader insights of what the working stiff had to endure. It does it, however, with an obvious love of railroading, and of the man the book is about.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible insights on a working man's life on the railroad
Review: This book brings to life the hard, gritty and dangerous life of working on the railroad. While there's a ton of romaniticized railroad books, this one give the reader insights of what the working stiff had to endure. It does it, however, with an obvious love of railroading, and of the man the book is about.
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