Martin Petrus Frederik Blomberg (December 11, 1888 in
Östervåla, Sweden — March 29, 1966 in
Winter Park, Florida) was an American engineer of Swedish origin. He became well known for the development of the
truck frame for the diesel-electric locomotives of the
Electro Motive Division (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,
Quebec in a paper mill, and studied technical drawing and mechanical construction in an evening school. From 1915, he worked then
National Steel Car 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 d ...
, where he was responsible for the construction of railroad
truck 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 ...
bodies. Among his designs he assisted at Pullman were the Union Pacific
M-10000 in 1934 (), and the
Brooklyn Rapid Transit "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 of General Motors). There Blomberg was given responsibility for the construction of locomotive bodies, frames and truck frames. The
EMC E4 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. 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 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