Illinois Central Death Stars

[Mr Fixit]

I have a question regarding Illinois Central locomotives being nicknamed 'Death Stars'?

This question arose from a photo showing a line of sidelined and stored locomotives in Effingham during the GFC economic meltdown a couple of years ago. I later spotted a photo showing the IC logo on a cab nose and started making some guesses.

I have reached the conclusion that the nickname is due in part to the black colour of the locos and the IC initials on a stylized world globe background. Now if we take the approximate age of the locos and add in the whole Darth Vader/ Star Wars series of films, then the Death Star nickname begins to make sense. Black for Darth Vader and the Empire, the globe then represents not the Earth but the Death Star and a nickname is born.

Given I am observing these things from Downunder, am I correct in my assumptions about the Death Star loco nickname?

Mark

[Bob C]

Hallo, Mr Fixit...Mark, I knew there hadda be a "Foamer" dictionary somewhere...for your amusement/amazement a (somewhat dated) citation:
http://kohlin.com/rr/rr_slang2.htm , with stuff possibly totally unheard of in your parts. Glad to have you with us...enjoy. Bob C

[Mr Fixit]

Thanks Bob.

That was a mighty fine read. I knew a lot of the terms but some were new to me.

I loved the 'We hit an Elephant" to cover hitting anything on the tracks. Supposedly in the 1880's a steam locomotive hit and killed a circus elephant on the tracks. Now that would have been messy.

Mark