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In the 1940's the Nickel Plate Road railroad upgraded its primary fast-traffic steam engines to the legendary "700" series of brutally powerful and fast 2-8-4 Berkshire-type locomotives. These were built by Lima in Ohio. On the Nickel Plate, the engines performed nearly perfectly for their entire career. The Nickel PLate's main meal ticket was moving freight very quickly from Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis east to Cleveland and Buffalo. These engines never failed to do so. The railroad's management was completely satisfied with them. It was said that nowhere else in North America was a steam engine more perfectly suited to it role than the 700's. Very very strong and capable of hitting around 90mph, these engines were unsurpassed by any other American steam engine. They could pull heavy loads almost effortlessly.

A railroad preservation society in Ft. Wayne IN bought number 765 and restored it to operation. The engine is famous throughout the midwest. Someone once wrote that steam engines were machines that were beautiful and useful at the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs6j_ZEde4o