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 enlarge | Author: John W. Orr
Creator: James D. Porterfield
Publisher: Keystone Books
Category: Book
List Price: $28.95
Buy New: $16.03
You Save: $12.92 (45%)
New (5) Used (1) from $15.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 40073
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 376
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1.1
ISBN: 027102741X
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9780271027418
ASIN: 027102741X
Publication Date: October 10, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: New condition - from private collection - Please check my other listings e-mail with questions
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| Customer Reviews:
SUPERB READING. February 19, 2007
The story as told by the son of the engineer, is an amazing work.
If trains and the history behind the men that operate the roads of yore, are of your interests, then don't pass this spellbinding story. The hardships, courage, friendhips, family, and good times, all become apparent. Items that would never have crossed my mind, especially the hardships they endured, along with wages and lack of benefits were a disgrace even for that period in time, are eye opening and have given me even more respect for those that came before me. Not the easy railroading of today and something all railroaders, and fans of railroading should read. May they all occupy a wonderful place in the beyond.
Not only a biography of the man, but the locomotives as well.... December 20, 2006
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.
A Must For Steam Era Locomotive Fans August 27, 2006
This is one of the very few books I plan to keep. I have read it twice and each time get more out of it. Oscar Orr was an outstanding loco engineman and his son is a fine author.
I recommend getting a map of Pennsylvania so you can become familiar with the area where Mr. Orr operated. The maps in the book are good but a state map brings it more into focus.
DC
Absolutely spellbinding! August 8, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Obviously, you have to be fascinated with steam locomotives. If you've ever wondered what it was like to be an engineer during the halcyon days of steam, John Orr's almost minute-by-minute account of his father's life is simply mesmerizing. I've read dozens of books on steam railroading, and this is my all-time favorite. I bought two more copies in case something happens to my original!
Railroad Father April 18, 2003
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
"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.
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