The Blomberg B was a "B" diesel locomotive

Diesel locomotive

A diesel locomotive is a type of railroad locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine, a reciprocating engine operating on the Diesel cycle as invented by Dr. Rudolf Diesel...

 truck

Bogie

A bogie is a wheeled wagon or trolley. In mechanics terms, a bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle. It can be fixed in place, as on a cargo truck, mounted on a swivel, as on a railway carriage/car or locomotive, or sprung as in the suspension of a caterpillar...

. These trucks were the standard EMD four wheel truck from the FT

EMD FT

The EMD FT was a diesel-electric locomotive produced between November 1939, and November 1945, by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division . All told 555 cab-equipped A units were built, along with 541 cabless booster B units, for a grand total of 1,096 units. The locomotives were all sold to...

 up until the GP60

EMD GP60

An EMD GP60 is a 4-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between 1985 and 1994. The GP60 was EMD's first diesel that was classified as a third-generation locomotive...

. EMD introduced the truck in 1936. Unofficially it is named after Martin Blomberg, who joined the company the year before. The truck was derived from an earlier six wheel truck (described in , filed January 29, 1938, and approved February 6, 1940), and was used starting with the FT.

Identification

Blomberg trucks can be identified by their prominent outside swing hangers, which afford a better ride during side-to-side movement. The outside placement has the advantage of widening its spring base from 56 to 96 in (1,422.4 to 2,438.4 mm).

A popular modification by railroads in later years was reducing the number of brake shoes from 8 to 4 by reconfiguring the double-clasp brake rigging, removing one brake shoe per wheel. This can give the Blomberg B the appearance of later Blomberg M trucks.

M version

A modified (M) version of the truck called the Blomberg M was used starting with the four-axle Dash 2 series

EMD Dash 2

On January 1, 1972, General Motors' Electro-Motive Division introduced its new Dash 2 line of diesel-electric locomotives. All designations of these new models were those of the former models with "-2" added...

 locomotives. Hydraulic snubbers (shocks) were used on diagonally opposite (front right and rear left) journals, and the leaf spring suspension was replaced with rubber pads. This version had only one brake actuating cylinder per side and revised brake rigging using threaded adjusters, reducing the number of brake shoes to 4 versus 8 on the earlier B model.

There is also a later variation of the Blomberg M found on the GP60

EMD GP60

An EMD GP60 is a 4-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between 1985 and 1994. The GP60 was EMD's first diesel that was classified as a third-generation locomotive...

 and F59PH models. The main spotting features of this version are leaf spring suspension (as opposed to rubber pads) and exposed roller bearing ends, along with damper shocks between the trucks and locomotive carbody to reduce sway. Similar looking trucks can be found under modern MPI MPXpress locomotives.