Martin Petrus Frederik Blomberg (December 11, 1888 in Östervåla, Sweden — March 29, 1966 in

Winter Park, Florida Winter Park is a city in Orange County, Florida, Orange County, Florida, United States. The population was 30,183 according to the 2022 census population estimate. It is part of the Greater Orlando, Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, Florida Metropolit ...

) was an American engineer of Swedish origin. He became well known for the development of the

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame constructi ...

frame for the diesel-electric locomotives of the

Electro Motive Division Progress Rail Locomotives, doing business as Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD), is an American manufacturer of diesel-electric locomotives, locomotive products and diesel engines for the rail industry. The company is owned by Caterpillar through its sub ...

(EMD).

Early life

Blomberg grew up as a son of a teacher and minister. He graduated from the technical institute in Örebro, and in 1910 went to the university at Uppsala. In this time, he was very active and trained for the Olympic Games of 1912 in Sweden. However, he immigrated to Canada in the same year. From 1912 to 1914, he worked in

Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières (, – 'Three Rivers') is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River across from the city of ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

in a paper mill, and studied technical drawing and mechanical construction in an evening school. From 1915, he worked then

National Steel Car National Steel Car is the largest manufacturer of railway rolling stock in Canada, based in Hamilton, Ontario. The company was founded in 1912, and has been a top 3 rolling stock manufacturer in Canada for its lifetime. National Steel Car is a subs ...

Ltd Hamilton, Ontario. He later traveled for a year by canoeing 900 miles from the Albany River to the Hudson Bay. In 1916, he went to the US and enlisted with the US Army during World War I. After he returned, he married Laura Van Buskirk. His son Richard Nelson Blomberg was born on October 21, 1924.

Pullman-Standard

From 1925 to 1935, Blomberg worked for the

Pullman Company The Pullman Company, founded by George Pullman, was a manufacturer of railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Through rapid late-19th century ...

, where he was responsible for the construction of railroad

frames and

passenger car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as t ...

bodies. Among his designs he assisted at Pullman were the Union Pacific

M-10000 The M-10000 was an early American streamlined passenger trainset that operated for the Union Pacific Railroad from 1934 until 1941. It was the first streamlined passenger train to be delivered in the United States, and the second to enter regula ...

in 1934 (), and the

Brooklyn Rapid Transit The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) was a public transit holding company formed in 1896 to acquire and consolidate railway lines in Brooklyn and Queens, New York City, United States. It was a prominent corporation and industry leader using ...

"Green Hornet", lightweight

MS Multi-section car (New York City Subway car) The MS Multi-section was a series of New York City Subway cars. They were built in prototype form in 1934 with production models built in 1936. Built by the Budd, Pullman, and St. Louis car companies, they were called "Multis" for short. The ...

for use on the BRT elevated transit lines in Brooklyn, New York.

Electro-Motive

On September 1, 1935, he accepted a position in the

Electro-Motive Corporation Progress Rail Locomotives, doing business as Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD), is an American manufacturer of diesel-electric locomotives, locomotive products and diesel engines for the rail industry. The company is owned by Caterpillar through its sub ...

(from 1941, it was renamed to

Electro-Motive Division Progress Rail Locomotives, doing business as Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD), is an American manufacturer of diesel-electric locomotives, locomotive products and diesel engines for the rail industry. The company is owned by Caterpillar through its sub ...

of General Motors). There Blomberg was given responsibility for the construction of locomotive bodies, frames and truck frames. The

EMC E4 The EMC E4 was a , A1A-A1A passenger train-hauling diesel locomotive built by the Electro-Motive Corporation of La Grange, Illinois. All were built for the Seaboard Air Line Railway. The E4 was the fifth model in a long line of passenger diesels ...

diesel-electric locomotive was mostly his design, including the three-axle (A1A) truck. In 1939 he designed the four-wheel flexible truck frame from the three-axle version for the new diesel-electric freight locomotive called the

EMD FT The EMD FT is a diesel-electric locomotive that was produced between March 1939 and November 1945, by General Motors' Electro-Motive Corporation (EMC), later known as GM Electro-Motive Division (EMD). The "F" stood for Fourteen Hundred (1400) ...

. This four-wheel truck frame and its derivations were incorporated in more than 15,000 locomotives. Unofficially, but generally accepted, the two-axle trucks,

Blomberg B The Blomberg B is a 2-axle bogie that was introduced by EMD in 1939 with the FT locomotive series; the original "B" version plus later "M" and "X" versions were quite successful and became standard equipment on a multitude of locomotive models. ...

and

Blomberg M The Blomberg B is a 2-axle bogie that was introduced by EMD in 1939 with the FT locomotive series; the original "B" version plus later "M" and "X" versions were quite successful and became standard equipment on a multitude of locomotive models. ...

, are named after him. The two-axle AAR Type A switcher truck is also a Blomberg design. Blomberg registered over 100 patents with the US Patent and Trademark Office during his 32 years with EMD. In 1947, he became lead engineer after the chief engineer of EMD.

Retirement

On 1 June 1949, he retired. He died on March 29, 1966 at the age of 77 in Winter Park, Florida. {{DEFAULTSORT:Blomberg, Martin P. 20th-century Swedish engineers 1888 births 1966 deaths American railroad mechanical engineers Swedish emigrants to the United States