Martin P Blomberg

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Martin Petrus Frederik Blomberg (December 11, 1888 in Östervåla (Sweden), 1966 in Winter Park (Florida) was a US American engineer of Swedish origin. He became well known for the development of the truck frame for the diesel locomotives of the Electro Motive Division (EMD).

Blomberg grew up as a son of a teacher and minister. He graduated the technical institute in Örebro and went 1910 on the university Uppsala. In this time, he was very active and trained for the Olympic Games of 1912 in Sweden. He, however, immigrated to Canada in the same year. Of 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 Corp Hamilton, Ontario. He later traveled for a year by canoeing along 900 miles of the Albany River to the Hudson Bay.

In 1916, he went into the US and took part with the US Army at the First World War. After he returned, he marries Laura Van Buskirk. His son Richard Nelson Blomberg was born on October 21st 1924.

Of 1925 to 1935, Blomberg works for the Pullman Company, where he was responsible for the construction of railroad truck frames and passenger car bodies. Among his designs he assisted at Pullman were the Union Pacific M-10000 in 1934 (U.S. Patent D100,000 ), and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit “Green Hornet”, lightweight MS Multi-section car (New York City Subway car) for use on the BRT elevated transit lines in Brooklyn, New York.

On September 1st, 1935, he accepted a position in the Electro-Motive Corporation (from 1941, it was renamed to Electro-Motive Division of General Motors). It was here Blomberg was given responsibility for the construction of locomotive bodies, its frame and truck frame. The EMD E4 locomotive was mostly of his design. In 1939 he designed the four wheel flexible truck frame from the six wheel version for the new freight diesel locomotive called the EMD FT. This four wheel truck frame and its derivations from were incorporated in more than 15,000 locomotives. Unofficially, but generally accepted the four wheel truck, Blomberg B is named after him.

Blomberg registered altogether over 100 patents with the US Patent and Trademark Office from his 32 years with EMD. In 1947, he became leading engineer after the chief engineer of EMD.

On the 1st of June 1949, he retired. He died 1966 at the age of 78 years of age in Winter Park, Florida.