Union Tank Car Company or UTLX (their best known reporting mark) is a railway equipment leasing company (and car maintenance / manufacturing) headquartered in metro Chicago, Illinois. As the name says, they specialise in tank cars, and covered hopper cars.
Founded in 1866 by J. J. Vandergrift, in response to the economic activities of Standard Oil, as of September 2005, according to their site, they have about 80,000 cars in their fleet.
Vandergrift was involved in the conflicts in the oil regions of Western Pennsylvania in the 1860s–1870s. Eventually, Union Tank Car Company and his other holdings, which included pipeline and riverboat transport companies, merged with the company that later became Standard Oil. Rockefeller, once Captain Vandergrift's nemesis, made him Vice President of Standard Oil. Captain Jacob J. Vandergrift also had a town built and named in his honor by George G. McMurtry in Western Pennsylvania in 1895.
TransUnion was formed as a holding company in 1968, and began acquiring credit bureaus. The Marmon Group acquired TransUnion in 1981.
Union Tank Car Company is still owned by Marmon. In 2008 60% of Marmon Holdings itself has been acquired by Berkshire Hathaway, with the remaining 40% to be acquired in the next five to seven years.
Famous quotes containing the words union, car and/or company:
“If in madness of delusion, anyone shall lift his parricidal hand against this blessed union ... the arms of thousands will be raised to save it, and the curse of millions will fall upon the head which may have plotted its destruction.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“The car has become the carapace, the protective and aggressive shell, of urban and suburban man.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“If it were not for the company of fools, a witty man would often be greatly at a loss.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)