GATX Corporation is a railcar lessor that owns fleets in North America, Europe, and Asia. In addition, jointly with

Rolls-Royce Limited Rolls-Royce was a British luxury car and later an aero-engine manufacturing business established in 1904 in Manchester by the partnership of Charles Rolls and Henry Royce. Building on Royce's good reputation established with his cranes, they ...

, it owns one of the largest aircraft spare engine lease portfolios. It is headquartered in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. As of December 31, 2020, the company owned 148,939 rail cars, including 83,959

tank car A tank car ( International Union of Railways (UIC): tank wagon) is a type of railroad car (UIC: railway car) or rolling stock designed to transport liquid and gaseous commodities. History Timeline The following major events occurred in t ...

s, 64,980

freight car A railroad car, railcar (American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and UIC), also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is ...

s, and 645

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the Power (physics), motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, Motor coach (rail), motor ...

s. Other major car types owned include

covered hopper A covered hopper is a self-clearing enclosed railroad freight car with fixed roof, sides, and ends with openings for loading through the roof and bottom openings for unloading. Covered hopper cars are designed for carrying dry bulk loads, varying ...

s, open-top

hopper car A hopper car (US) or hopper wagon ( UIC) is a type of railroad freight car used to transport loose bulk commodities such as coal, ore, grain, and track ballast. Two main types of hopper car exist: covered hopper cars, which are equipped with a ...

s, and

gondolas The gondola (, ; vec, góndoła ) is a traditional, flat-bottomed Venetian rowing boat, well suited to the conditions of the Venetian lagoon. It is typically propelled by a gondolier, who uses a rowing oar, which is not fastened to the hull ...

. It primarily serves the

petroleum industry The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry or the oil patch, includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transportation (often by oil tankers and pipelines), and marketing of petroleum products. The larges ...

(29% of 2020 revenues),

chemical industry The chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals. Central to the modern world economy, it converts raw materials (oil, natural gas, air, water, metals, and minerals) into more than 70,000 different products. The ...

(22% of 2020 revenues),

food industry The food industry is a complex, global network of diverse businesses that supplies most of the food consumed by the world's population. The food industry today has become highly diversified, with manufacturing ranging from small, traditiona ...

(11% of 2020 revenues),

mining industry Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

(10% of 2020 revenues), and

transportation industry Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, a ...

(20% of 2020 revenues).

History

The company was founded as Atlantic Seaboard Dispatch in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

in 1898 by Max Epstein to ship beer in refrigerated railcars for

Duquesne Brewing Company The Duquesne Brewing Company was a major brewery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from its founding in 1899 until its dissolution in 1972. The brand was revived under the name Duquesne Brewing Company in 2008, in order to re-establish the beer in West ...

. In 1902, the company was renamed German-American Car Co., in 1916 it changed its name to General American Tank Car Corp. and became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (l ...

via an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

, and in 1933, it was renamed General American Transportation Corp. In 1949, the company worked with designer

Russel Wright Russel Wright (April 3, 1904 – December 21, 1976) was an American industrial designer. His best-selling ceramic dinnerware was credited with encouraging the general public to enjoy creative modern design at table with his many other ranges of fu ...

to develop "Meladur", a

melamine Melamine is an organic compound with the formula C3H6N6. This white solid is a trimer of cyanamide, with a 1,3,5-triazine skeleton. Like cyanamide, it contains 67% nitrogen by mass, and its derivatives have fire retardant properties due t ...

dinnerware Tableware is any dish or dishware used for setting a table, serving food, and dining. It includes cutlery, glassware, serving dishes, and other items for practical as well as decorative purposes. The quality, nature, variety and number of obj ...

. Effective January 1, 2000, General American Transportation Corporation was renamed GATX Rail Corporation, a unit of GATX Corporation. In 2004, the company sold its technology-leasing unit to

CIT Group CIT Group (CIT), a subsidiary of First Citizens BancShares, is an American financial services company. It provides financing, including factoring, cash management, treasury management, mortgage loans, Small Business Administration loans, l ...

for about $200 million in cash. In September 2013, the company sold its 37.5% interest in AAE Ahaus Alstätter Eisenbahn Cargo AG to its partner, AAE Ahaus Alstätter Eisenbahn, for €84.5 million. In March 2014, the company acquired the North American per diem boxcar fleet of

GE Capital Rail Services GE Capital Rail Services, also known as GE Railcar, or GE Railcar Services Corporation was a business unit of GE Capital, a division of General Electric. It was a distinct business unit from General Electric's railway locomotive manufacturer. G ...

, consisting of more than 18,500 boxcars. In November 2018, the company announced an agreement to acquire up to 3,100 railcars from

ECN Capital ECN Capital Corporation is a Canadian financing company with managed and advised assets of approximately US$29 billion. It provides credit portfolios to 90 U.S. financial institutions and also originates, manages and advises on prime credit asset ...

for up to $229 million. In May 2020, the company sold

American Steamship Company The American Steamship Company (ASC) is an American transportation company that operates a fleet of self-unloading vessels in the Great Lakes. The company is currently owned by Rand Logistics Inc. History The American Steamship Company was fo ...

, its dry bulk vessel business, to Rand Logistics for $260 million. In December 2020, the company acquired Trifleet Leasing Holding B.V., the fourth largest global

tank container A tank container or tanktainer is an intermodal container for the transport of liquids, gases and Powder (substance), powders as bulk cargo. It is built to the International Organization for Standardization, ISO standards, making it suitable for d ...

lessor.

Reporting marks

GATX's primary freight car marks are: * GATX (for tank cars) * GACX (for general-service freight cars) * GGPX (for coal cars) * GIMX (for intermodal cars) * GPLX (for plastic pellet cars) * GMTX and LLPX (for locomotives) * GPFX (for pressure-differential cars) GATX also owns other marks including GABX, GAEX, GCCX, GFSX, GOHX, GSCX, IPSX, and TRIX including for

General American Marks Company The General American Marks Company is a part of GATX Corporation, formerly the General American Transportation Company, headquartered in Chicago. GATX Corporation owns businesses that lease railcars, locomotives, and aircraft. Some past and present ...

and GATX Rail. Many GATX cars carry a large "GATX" logo in the upper corner of the cars regardless of the reporting mark they carry; this logo is applied for marketing reasons and does not have any operational significance.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1898 establishments in Illinois 1910s initial public offerings Companies based in Chicago Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Rolling stock leasing companies Transportation companies based in Illinois Transportation companies of the United States