The first prototype of the "Tartaruga" locomotives of the Ferrovie dello Stato, the E 444 # 001, delivered in July 1967, exhibited in the national italian railway museum of Pietrarsa. The E.444/E.447/E.444R are railway locomotives designed in the sixties to equip the State Railways with very powerful and fast vehicles, suitable for the towing of the most important trains, in particular of the rapid trains and the international service and all types of trains that could reach the most rectilinear with speeds of 180 km/h with peaks of 200 km/h, when all the other locomotives existing at the time. The four prototypes had 3420 kW and a maximum velocity of 180 km/h.
For twenty years (70s and eighties) the E.444 (117 units in all) were the flagship of the Italian locomotives, whose role was then inherited by the E.402.
