There is an ice hockey team called the Worcester Railers. I know the name of the city, but what is the origin of this “Railers”? It’s not explained on Wikipedia - Worcester Railers.
Japan also has a rugby team called the JR West Railers, which is sponsored by the passenger railway company JR West.
Their logo contains a fantasy steam locomotive, so there’d definitely a connection. Certain days have ticket subsidy from the ‘Commuter Rail’ which is the Worcester/Framingham line to South Station in Boston.
Ask Jack May?
Thank you @zugmann for the accurate information.
The team mascot is a railyard dog called Trax. What, a railyard dog?
Were there dogs kept in the railyard to hunt hares?
The dogs were there to bite the railfans.
The Georgia football team’s defense were called “junkyard dogs,” as the team name was the Bulldogs and the mascot was named UGA.
Is that a joke? Yes, please tell me that it’s a joke. 
Only incidentally is that a joke. ‘Junkyard dogs’ are intentionally trained to be mean, but territorial, so they viciously attack any stranger that ventures ‘onto their turf’. Of course the junkyard is also thouroughly fenced off, with the dogs providing a sort of non-electrical alarm system – as they have since at least the days of the Roman Republic, where the sign ‘Cave Canem’ was as respected and feared as its English counterpart ‘Beware of the Dog’ is today.
(It ought to be mentioned that the Romans had a ‘right idea’ about security in a different respect – they were known to use geese as temple security, not so much because the geese would attack (they will, of course, but are too small to put up a fight against a determined intruder) but because the sheer noise would act as a highly effective alarm. The Maltese dog breed (one of the most fiercely loyal I know) was bred for a similar function: when something is wrong, they howl and keep howling and defending, even though relatively small.)
Rail-yard dogs are a but different, because obviously those yards are not secure-fenced as ‘salvage yards’ are. Those dogs would likely be attack-trained, but only fir people actually trespassing – and they would make no particular exception for trespassing railfans…
It was a joke, but apparently it fell flat on some people. I forgot to factor in humor entropy.
The AA baseball team that plays in Hartford, CT is called te “Yard Goats”, yes named for switicher locomotives since the stadium is next to a rail yard. The mascot is an angry goat (an animal, not an annoyed engineer.)
I was sure it was a joke. But in Japan, there’s a tendency to dislike otaku fans, and I love dogs, so I was worried they might get run over by a train if they were let loose in the yard.
An acquaintance of mine told me that in the old days, railroads used goats for shunting, and I half-believe that. 
Goat was a common term for yard switcher.
And the goats were crewed by hoggers/hogheads, ashcats, and snakes. Dogs used by the “bulls” would probably be leashed. (What a menagerie the railroad was.) Mainly looking for people breaking into cars or boxcar tourists riding the side door pullmans.
Some railroads experimented using dogs to sniff out potential hotboxes in the early stages of failure.
Jeff
I wonder how many out there know why ‘snakes’ were so called.
In the years shortly after 9/11 VRE would hire a ‘consultant’ outfit to show up with bomb sniffing dogs at various stations on random basis.
To my knowledge, no bombs were found. I believe the practice stopped about a decade after 9/11 as I stopped hearing from the consultant that they were ‘on the property’.
Minor League teams - no matter the sport are having to go far afield to come up with team nicknames. Among the few that I am aware of - Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, Akron Rubber Ducks, and Hagerstown Flying Boxcars - all in minor league baseball..
The Omaha Storm Chasers!
How could you forget the Rocket City Trash Pandas!
Although it’s not Minor League, I enjoy the unique mascots some high schools adopt. My favorite has to be the Salem (MA) High School Witches.
Hear the announcer at a Friday night football game: “Uh-oh, it looks like there’s an injured Witch down on the 38 yard line…” “…and the Witches have dominated this game…” Or, “here come the Marching Witches of Salem High.”
However, it might be “uncomfortable” to be a cheerleader at Salem High; imagine the taunts.
