Ride the Rails – Ep. 1 | Where our hi-rail story began
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DymaxRail is North America’s premier innovator in road-to-rail transportation solutions.
What’s in a name. Sometimes not much. Often everything. Dymax was born amidst the values and beliefs of the Balderson family. It’s a name that has long stood for quality, integrity and service.
When John Balderson migrated from Ohio in 1876 to set up a blacksmith shop in Louisville, Kansas, he was already a second generation worker of iron and steel, as his father, Seth, had been a blacksmith in Amesville, Ohio for 20 years. Blacksmiths in the 1870s were a far cry from the steel workers of today – welders, machinists, press brake and roll operators – but their underlying reason for being was the same: to craft meaningful and life-improving products from raw metal.
John’s son, Neil, was also a blacksmith, learning from his Uncle Ed in the Boyd Blacksmith Shop in nearby Wamego. By 1907 Neil was married and working with his father in the Balderson Blacksmith Shop in Wamego. In 1922 Neil borrowed $500 to buy a used Model T truck and new-fangled welding machine. Within 3 months he had paid back the loan and was bringing the services of welding to farmers throughout the Kansas River valley.
In 1929 the local Kansas highway department shop asked Neil to repair some Baker snowplows. Neil applied some intuitive logic in the repair, and in the process re-designed the plows. That winter they worked better than ever.
The next year the State of Kansas place a large order of v-type snow plows with Balderson Welding. Neil’s son Willard had finished his engineering studies at Kansas State Agricultural College in Manhattan, and joined his father in making their first Balderson snow plows.
By 1935 Willard was operating the welding shop and Neil was in his car calling on equipment dealers throughout the Midwest. Upon the encouragement of a Caterpillar dealer in Topeka, Caterpillar Tractor Co. recognized the Balderson snow plow as an approved product, and sales to Caterpillar dealers across the country began. This was the beginning of Balderson Manufacturing.
Clark Balderson purchased Dymax in 1997 and was joined by his son Scott Balderson. For five generations we’ve helped our customers by listening to their needs. As Dymax enters 2018, we are dedicated to serving our customers throughout the world. Our success is rooted in “out-of-the-box thinking” about how steel and related materials can be designed to produce exceptional results and make the world a better place. It was the basis of John Balderson’s blacksmith shop 150 years ago, and it remains the purpose that drives the Balderson family today.
1875 - 2025
150 Years
