Great Lakes Carbon Covered Hoppers

Great Lakes Carbon produced calcined petroleum coke, which is formed into electrodes for electrolytic refining of aluminum GLC's 1979-built covered hoppers were often seen along CN's Kingston sub, these cars usually travelling in twos and threes. The cars were heading loaded to Varennes, QC and when empty were billed to Enid, OK, one of the largest production sites for calcined petroleum coke. Ben A. shared a photo taken in May 2013 showing Great Lakes Carbon, now INTX 35093, covered hopper at Joffre, AB (that's a long way from the Great Lakes) in May 2013 (above). INTX reporting marks are used by Interstate Commodities. Chris DeVries reported INTX 35083 and 35048 at Symington Yard in September 2015. Other cars in the GLCX 7000 series such as 7042 and 7050 received this 'press-on' lettering. In addition, various forms of logo with black or red background have been applied.

GLCX 7003 in a 1979 Jim Parker photo showing the black/red logo (above). GLCX cars in the 7000-7099 and 8000-8229 totalled 325 in 1995. Online photos of class car GLCX 7000 a mere couple of months old also in 1979, and GLCX 7073 in November 1979. I photographed GLCX 7021-7022 on CN at Belleville in September, 2000, with black/red and red logos respectively.

GLCX 8054-8110-8066 on CN No 321 at Belleville in August 2014 sans logos, though GLCX 8102 was still with logo in Oklahoma in September, 2014.

Great Lakes Carbon cars are available in scale in the Atlas Trainman series, with INTX reporting marks. Also with black logo, black/red logo, or red logo.

Here are my other GLCX sightings including logo if noted and CN train:
Feb 15/81 7054
Mar 26/81 8116
Oct 23/82 8028-8219
Oct 27/98 8156 No 320
Jun 12/99 8138 No 321
May 13/00 7008 on headend No 321
Aug 24/00 8105-8110 No 321
Aug 26/00 8038-7007 on CN No 321 (St-Antoine QC to Toronto MacMillan Yard)
Dec 5/00 8037-7048 and two others No 321
Mar 9/01 8113-7063 logo-7047 logo No 321
Jun 21/02 7046 logo-7023 logo No 321
Nov 20/03 7090
Mar 17/05 8052 No 321
Mar 24/06 7052 No 321
Apr 12/07 8045 no logo-8144 no logo
Feb 8/09 7067 logo-8092 logo
Jun 20/09 7091 logo-8194 logo-8222 no logo No 368 (Arvida QC - Toronto)

Aug 19/10 8148-8203-8218 all no logo.

****June 2016 Update ****
Loyal Trackside Treasure reader Chris de Vries kindly shared two photos of GLC cars still in service, taken at Winnipeg in June, 2016:

 INTX 35003 (above) and INTX 35014 (below)

****December 2022 Update****

Here's GLCX 8034 complete with logo and GLCX 8068, still making miles on a late-running CN No 322 on December 27 (image courtesy Railstream, LLC):

Running extra...

FB this! At the suggestion of blog partner Steve Boyko, I decided to not only check out the Facebook groups he recommended, but also to join the White-on-Blue-F team. I'm still preparing for my first official Facebook rant. Any ideas for appropriate topics?

Steve's post got me wondering what the ideal social media platform for railfans (or regular people) is. Don't worry, Trackside Treasure in blog form will be around as long as Blogger (and I) can support it. It strikes me that rail enthusiast needs are different from the 'family vacation photos, memes and Youtube video links) FB crowd. I do like Pinterest for warehousing photos, but Trackside Treasure allows me to include a story with the photos as well. Like!

The first really useful site I found with FB is Greg McDonnell's site. The first really unexpected photo I found on Facebook - your humble blogger in the lower levels of Union Station getting our school group organized to depart Toronto for Vancouver aboard VIA No 1 in October, 1980:

A VIAphile in the making! With the help of fellow Facebooker Drew Makepeace, we produced an educational trip guide for the group - to satisfy educational requirements and to provide a boredom kill. Not that I was bored, camera and nose pressed to glass enjoying railfanning all the way west! While the rest of the group was relaxing at the Fort Garry Hotel during the 4-hour layover, we were railfanning East Yard and the Depot.