Editing High-speed rail (section)

====Italian electric and the last steam record====
[[File:Rimessa ferroviaria pistoia 64.jpg|thumb|The original Italian [[FS Class ETR 200|ETR 200]] trainset of the speed world record ({{convert|203|km/h|abbr=on|disp=or}}) in 1938, now preserved as historical train, was re-numbered ETR 232 in the 1960s]]
The German high-speed service was followed in Italy in 1938 with an electric-multiple-unit [[ETR 200]], designed for {{convert|200|km/h|abbr=on}}, between Bologna and Naples. It too reached {{convert|160|km/h|abbr=on}} in commercial service, and achieved a world mean speed record of {{convert|203|km/h|abbr=on}} between Florence and Milan in 1938.

In Great Britain in the same year, the streamlined [[steam locomotive]] ''[[LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard|Mallard]]'' achieved the official [[Land speed record for railed vehicles|world speed record]] for [[steam locomotive]]s at {{convert|125.88|mph|abbr=on|order=flip}}. The external combustion engines and boilers on steam locomotives were large, heavy and time and labor-intensive to maintain, and the days of steam for high speed were numbered.