It's amazing what will stick for a name.

We had a railroad crossing of an unassuming name until we hit a semi truck there. Low speed (5 mph), no injuries, etc. Some guys started calling it "Danger crossing", but management frowned upon that. It then became "Bosnian Crossing" in honor of the semi-truck driver we hit.

Historical Names

A lot of things get named for more utilitarian reasons too, but in the theme of the original post, they really stick around.

Example: in the small Canadian Pacific yard at Guelph Junction (Campbellville, Ontario, Canada) there was a track running past the small two-stall enginehouse with the water tower and other services on it. Naturally it was called the "Water Track". The enginehouse and water tank have been gone for 40 years but crews still call it the "Water Track".

Example: in St. Thomas, Ontario, there's an old track somewhere called the "Wabash Transfer" which used to be an interchange track between different railroads. There's a lot of complicated history and geography here involving multiple railroads' track and running rights, and lots of tracks and operations have changed or been abandoned over the years and the name of that track is basically the only thing left of that history. (Wabash of course became Norfolk and Western became Norfolk Southern, and NS abandoned their running rights into St. Thomas years ago.)

If you have a plausible story for it like the "New World" story above, an interesting name for something can really provide an element of backstory and history to your freelance railroad.

On the FEC

in Hialeah yard there is a switch to the Medley Lead. The switch is called the "gator switch" because a large alligator lived and sunned near that switch.

Old Names Never Die

I'm told that the CN (formerly IC) crews in Baton Rouge still refer to ExxonMobil as Standard Oil.

Names

All sorts of stuff makes it into names. 

There was a track at Durand, Kansas called the "K&A" after the old Kansas and Arkansas Railroad.

At Salt Lake City, one of the crossovers leaving the yard was called the "Wheeler" after the former Superintendent, Dave Wheeler, who had it installed.

On the double track leaving Houston NWD on the Palestine Sub, there is a crossover called McGowan.   The UP was installing a second main track from Belt Jct to Spring.  They all the tracks in except the road crossings.   McGowan was a city councilman who blocked the UP from cutting in the crossings until the UP paid for reworking the approaches to the crossings.  When the railroad finally agreed to the changes, he allowed the railroad to cut through the crossings.  The UP named a crossover on the double track for McGowan.

When crews were approaching the south end of the yard, they would tell the yardmaster when they were coming by the "ice cream stand", because there used to be an ice cream stand at that location.

On the PAS

In Ayer, MA on the Pan Am Southern, there is a track known as the "camp track".  It got it's name back when it served Camp Devens.  Camp Devens became Fort Devens in 1932, which puts a limit on when the name stuck.  And now there is no Fort Devens, just Devens Industrial Park, and the track is quite a distance from that and used for other purposes.  But it's still the camp track.

If you have a plausible story

I've found just that Chris. I was building my freelance line and trying to work out it's backstory for several years before I discovered "The Little River Railroad" right under my nose in my favorite vacation spot. It turned out to have some real good similarities to what I was doing. I'll never be a prototype modeler or even a protolance guy but the discovery is what finally allowed me to put my concept into clear focus. No one will ever mistake the "Black N' Blue" fictional history for something real because I embellish and add subtle humor as that's what I like to do but I have to admit having the "LRRR" as a measuring stick has helped immensely.

The stories of names are great guys. I especially like "gator switch"!

Other stuff

At Durham Yard on the old MP Baytown branch, there was something called the "goat stand".  The yard was built on the tail track of a wye and one leg of the wye was being used as a switch lead.  Alongside the tracks  was a marsh that had bull rushes that could be 6-8 feet high above the rail.  The railroad built a platform about 4 ft tall on the curve so the foreman could stand on the platform and pass signals to the engine and the field man.  It was where the "old goat" stood.