Columbia University started classes in the new Morningside Heights campus in October 1897. (Thank you George!)

On this brand new campus, the engineering students finally had ample classroom and laboratory space in their two new buildings: the School of Mines (now Lewisohn) and the School of Engineering (now Mathematics).

But there used to be a full-size locomotive engine underneath Havemeyer Hall.

The mechanics labs were located in what was known as the West or Havemeyer vault, the subterranean space north of Engineering and in front of Havemeyer. The main attraction of the vault was the Locomotive Laboratory featuring a fullsize engine mounted on rollers. The “Columbia” locomotive had been exhibited at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 and was then donated to the school by the Baldwin Locomotive Works. Weighing 63 tons, the engine could be made to run in place up to sixty miles an hour.

The Locomotive Lab also made quite an impression on visitors: it was a fully functioning train engine inside a building. In 1911, Professor Rudolph Tombo met with the King Albert I of Belgium, who recalled having visited Columbia a few years earlier and seeing the indoors locomotive. According to Tombo, “the King remarked that shows how practical you Americans are. Instead of sending the student into the shops, you bring the shops to the student.”

So what happened to this locomotive? The lab was built in the era of low-steam pressure and hydraulic engines. With changes in technology, the old locomotive had become obsolete and the lab equipment had to be modernized. In 1920, the “Columbia” engine was sold to a junkman for $400, who had cut it into pieces to get it out of the small entrance to the building.

However, one piece of the locomotive did stick around campus for a bit longer, at least through 1961. The bell attached on top of the engine was used during finals to mark the beginning and end of the exam time. This was back when exams were held in the gymnasium, a practice Columbia discontinued in 1965. The current whereabouts of the bell are, unfortunately, unknown.

https://blogs.library.columbia.edu/rbml/2026/07/29/the-locomotive-laboratory/?shem=dsdf,sharefoc,agadiscoversdl,,sh/x/discover/m1/4