Set Up Running: The Life of a Pennsylvania Railroad Engineman, 1904-1949
by John W. Orr

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Book Reviews of Set Up Running: The Life of a Pennsylvania Railroad Engineman, 1904-1949

Book Review: A bygone era of American steam power
Summary: 5 Stars

Summary of Set Up Running: The Life of a Pennsylvania Railroad Engineman, 1904-1949

"An engaging book, one likely to become a railroad classic. The major strength of Set Up Running is detail, particularly when it involves locomotives, train movements, and patterns of operation. Especially enjoyable are the depictions of Orr as a loyal Pennsylvania Railroad employee and of his overall pride of workmanship." -H. Roger Grant, Clemson University

"One of my earliest recollections involves the railroad, a plaintive whistle, and my mother stating that my father would soon be home. And it wasn't long before that large man, clad in blue overalls, came through the door with his travel bag, which he promptly set on the kitchen floor so he could pick me up. There was a strange smell on his overclothes, but it was not offensive, and it was one that I later learned belonged to a steam engine. So from very early in my life I developed an avid interest in the steam engine." -John W. (Jack) Orr

Set Up Running tells the story of a Pennsylvania Railroad locomotive engineer, Oscar P. Orr, who operated steam-powered freight and passenger trains throughout Central Pennsylvania and South Central New York. From 1904 to 1949, Orr sat at the controls of many famous steam locomotives; moved trains loaded with coal, perishables, and other freight; and encountered virtually every situation a locomotive engineer of that era could expect to see.

John W. (Jack) Orr, Oscar's son, tells his father's story, which begins at the Central Steam Heating Plant in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Oscar operated nearly every kind of steam locomotive the Pennsylvania Railroad owned, working from the bottom of the roster to the top position (number one in seniority). Orr has an ear for detail, and a vivid memory. He tells about his father's first encounter with an automobile along the right-of-way, about what it was like to operate a train in a blizzard, and about the difficulties railroadmen encountered in stopping a trainload of tank cars loaded with oil in order to take on water and coal-among many other stories in the author's large memory bank.

This compelling railroad history will enthrall not only everyone in the railroad community but also the general reader interested in railroads and trains, past and present.

General Books

• Biographies & Memoirs
• Historical > General
• Regional U.S. > Mid Atlantic
• Memoirs
• Nonfiction > Transportation > Railroads > General
• History > World > Transportation > Railroads