[chiph]

An interesting story from that time period - German intelligence was reporting that the US had a locomotive that weighed 1.2 million pounds (including the tender) and could pull a 3,600 ton (US) consist of railcars up a 1.14% grade, and also run at 80 mph on flat land. This was the Union Pacific articulated Big Boy. And Hitler didn't believe such an engine was possible, much less that the UP had 25 of them in service. So he directed that the forecasts of American transportation exclude these "absurd" numbers.

http://www.steamlocomotive.com/bigboy/