During the steam era the New York Central maintained a small fleet of electrics to pull its trains through the tunnel under the Detroit River connecting with the Canada Southern Division across Ontario. The 650-volt D.C. operation was a separate corporation, the Detroit River Tunnel Company. Included in a line of retired motors in the Detroit terminal area in March 1954 is No. 163, a member of class R1 built by Alco in 1910. This class exerted 50,375 pounds of tractive effort.