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:
“Without the power of the Industrial Union behind it, Democracy can only enter the State as the victim enters the gullet of the Serpent.”
—James Connolly (1870–1916)
“Between here and that old car outside there are twenty-five paces. Make them. Now.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“It has lately been drawn to your correspondent’s attention that, at social gatherings, she is not the human magnet she would be. Indeed, it turns out that as a source of entertainment, conviviality, and good fun, she ranks somewhere between a sprig of parsley and a single ice- skate. It would appear, from the actions of the assembled guests, that she is about as hot company as a night nurse.”
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967)