On June 1, 1925, trial runs were made with two articulated, motor-generator electric locomotives. Numbered 500 and 501 with a D-D+D-D wheel arrangement, the articulated pair was designed by Ford engineers with Westinghouse electrical components. Weighing 785,600 pounds, the units had a starting tractive force of 250,000 pounds, 2,200 vole AC current being converted to 600 volts DC for the traction motors. Power for the line came from the Ford Highland Park plant and later some was generated at the Rouge works. Top speed of the dark green and red giants was 43 m.p.h., and after several months of tests, they entered service between the Flat Rock Yard and the Rouge Plant early in 1926.
There seems little doubt that Ford envisioned considerable use of electric motive power and certainly pioneered the motor-generator concept that was adopted in later times, but disenchantment and frustrations caused him to abandon further electrification beyond the first 17 miles under the concrete arches.
(From "inside Track". magazine about MI RRs)
