[3]: 109  The locomotive contained a single Westinghouse turbine which in turn drove four direct current (DC) generators, mounted in pairs.

[1]: 161 Defying the usual convention, the M-1 was arranged with its boiler in the rear and the coal bunker in the front.

The reduced number of moving parts meant that, in theory, the M1 required far less maintenance than a conventional steam locomotive.

Its designers predicted that it could make a round trip between Washington and Cincinnati without servicing.

During a trial run with a reporter from Popular Mechanics aboard, a C&O engineer expressed his dissatisfaction with a local speed limit of 75 miles per hour (121 km/h), noting that he would "sure like to be able to pull it back to eleven!