Madsen Plant Owners Pages A Little History

From 1910 to 1978 over one thousand hot mix asphalt batch plants were built around the world under the

Madsen name. What follows is a brief history of this company, the many owners of the product line and

where the company is today.

 

Madsen Iron Works began business in Los Angeles, California during 1910. Between 1910 and 1958, asphalt batch plants and other road building equipment were built at both their main Los Angeles facility and a second plant located in La Mirada, Ca. Serial Numbers for batch plants built at these two sites during this time number from 1 thru 259.

In Oct. 1958 Madsen Iron Works was acquired by Baldwin- Lima- Hamilton of Lima, Ohio. BLH continued the product line, but revised the company name to simply "Madsen Works". Between 1958 and 1961 plants with serial numbers 260 thru 435 were built at the La Mirada facility, although for plants 415 thru 435 all dryers were built at BLH's Lima plant.

In April, 1961 all Madsen operations were moved to BLH's Lima, Ohio facilities. At this time the product line was renamed again, this time to "Lima Works", although the name "Madsen" continued to be included on equipment ID tags. Between April, 1961 and July 1972, plants 436 thru 644 were built under this arrangement.

In July, 1972 BLH was acquired by the Clark Equipment Company. Known as "Clark Madsen" equipment and built by Clark Equipment, Lima Division, this iteration yielded plants 645 thru 1005 from 1972 thru November 1978.

In Dec, 1978 the batch plant line was purchased from Clark Equipment by the Eagle Crusher Company of Galion, Ohio. From 1978 thru June, 1997 Eagle offered service and repair parts for all existing batch plants, but no new plants or equipment were built, effectively removing the Madsen line from the market for about 10 years.

In July, 1997 Asphalt Equipment & Service Company (AESCO) of Auburn, WA. acquired the entire Madsen line (including all BLH/Clark/Eagle additions) from Eagle Crusher. All customer records, equipment, drawings, patterns, stock, etc. pertaining to 87 years of Madsen batch plant fabrication were moved to the Auburn facility. Under the name "Aesco Madsen", these batch plants are once again being offered to the hot mix asphalt industry. Plants 1006 thru present fabricated at the Auburn plant.

© 2009 Aesco/Madsen. All rights reserved.