We've had this discussion before John. 44:1 is pretty extreme. For a while my signature line was "30:1 or bust!" (meant for a steam loco with 1.25" drivers.) Many steam locos are geared at 16:1 or less, which leaves a lot of room for improvement!
What you want is 800 RPM at 4 scale MPH, and a redline of about 12,000 RPM which would give you 60 scale mph on the top end. Motor mounted in rubber grommets, balanced flywheel(s), and die-cast metal body for noise suppression. I didn't come up with this on my own. Kato HO scale diesels, and US Hobbies O scale brass from the 1960s delivered rock-solid performance by following this formula. Of course these weren't toys meant for kids--but we're not kids anymore, and we're not paying Toys R Us prices either!
I'm not sure I ever measured one of those "Old-timer" Williams 4-6-0s. But they are renowned for good running, and I'm going to guess they are geared at 25 or 30:1. It's too bad Williams never went back and updated the rest of their product line with this kind of thinking.
