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. This string of motors, awaiting disposition in the Detroit terminal area in March 1954, was not displaced by diesels but by other electrics brought from New York City. Behind No. 161, of class R1, are No. 169 of class R1a, No. 165 of class R1 and several others. The R1 class was built by Alco in 1910 and exerted a tractive effort of 50,375 pounds. The R1a class came from General Electric in 1914 and mustered 50,500 pounds of tractive effort. All the R1s had a wheel diameter of 48 inches. Though not diesels, one could say that these engines were among the original "tunnel motors."