Giuseppe Belluzzo designed a steam turbine locomotive with each wheel powered by its own turbine. Built in 1908 by Officine Meccaniche in Milan, the locomotive had two axles and thus four turbines connected in series. The steam first drove the turbine on the front right wheel and the exhaust steam was used to drive the turbine on the right rear wheel. This continued with the rear left and front left wheels before finally ending up in the smoke box.

The turbines turned at a much higher speed than the wheels. Different speeds could be achieved with the help of different gear wheels, while forward and reverse travel was made possible by double guide vanes. Although the prototype was in use until 1921, the drive form with several turbines did not catch on.

While other railroads switched from coal to diesel, the C&O refused to take this step for a while. Given their huge coal business, attempts were made to modernize the fleet while retaining coal as fuel. In 1948 and 1949, a total of three coal-fired steam turbine locomotives were built, which were the longest single-unit locomotives in the world and were nicknamed “Holy Cow”.

In the front part of the locomotives was the coal bunker, which fed the 6,000 hp turbine in the rear part of the locomotive. The water came from an additional tender. The eight traction motors were powered by the four generators, which together delivered 4,960 hp. With this system it was hoped that maintenance would be easier than with piston steam locomotives and the aim was to complete round trips of 1,000 miles without servicing stops.

The intended area of operation was the planned “Chessie” streamlined train. With a top speed of 100 mph (161 km/h) of the locomotives, this was to be hauled at a cruising speed of 70 mph (113 km/h). The M-1's fate finally came when they turned out to be very unreliable and the “Chessie” did not come into being. They were eventually used in other areas for only a short time and were scrapped in 1950.