Milwaukee Road class F7
The F7s are major contenders for the fastest steam locomotives ever built, as they ran at over daily. One run in January 1941 recorded by a reporter for "Trains" magazine saw achieved twice—in the midst of a heavy snowstorm. Baron Gérard Vuillet, a French railroading expert, once recorded a run between Chicago and Milwaukee where the locomotive reached and sustained an average for . However, the British locomotive LNER Class A4 4468 "Mallard" is officially accepted to be the world's fastest, with a run recorded at but authenticated at 126 mph in 1938.
DRG Class E 19
The electric locomotives of the class E 19 (class 119 from 1968) were the fastest electric locomotives of the Deutsche Reichsbahn. In regular service, they were restricted to a maximum speed of 180 km/h, but the locomotives were designed for travel speeds of up to 225 km/h. At the time of their presentation, they were the most powerful single frame locomotives ever built.