Railroad track anvil

I got a small, butchered piece of rail track some years ago in a lot of tools that I bought. I wanted to, but never did anything with it until I saw the excellent one that Tuomas Soikkeli posted here recently. That inspired me to action. The 155lb Trenton anvil inspire the design. I didn't need it, and may never use it, but that's never stopped me before.

This is before:
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This is after:
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The horn is modeled after the one on my Trenton anvil. There wasn't enough material to copy the heel, and the whole top is offset, so I worked that into the shape. I don't know what kind of rail this is or how old it is, but the curved side and top looked worn in, rather than ground. The side with the sharp corner had a bit of a lip or burr. I took a 1/16th off the "sharp" side with a 7" grinder to level the top.
I used a bandsaw to rough in the shape, and used a Diamond X grinding wheel to level the surfaces, a diamond cutting wheel to slice the base to make the "feet", a 4 1/2" Pferd Polifan wheel to make the inside radii, then some flapdisks to smooth it all out, and a wire wheel to de-rust the rest.

When I got it done, I had to set up this photo.
Attachment 18478

If I decide to finish polish and/or mount it to a scaled stump, I'll add some more photos.

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Friends,

Where is a good hassle-free source of RR Rail Segments?

A walk along a RR Track used to be sufficient in days gone by, but modern welded rail doesn't create as many stubs AND Many Railroads have become wet and soggy, remarkably saline and damned hard to get along with—Pressing criminal charges over 10-20 Pounds of scrap Iron someone inherited…

Saxon Violence

RR anvils seem to be popular now a days, I just completed mine today. I found a badly rusted 71/2' section on my property, covered in vegetation, when I was filling in the old homestead basement dug out. That might be your best bet if you know someone with a piece they are willing to give up. The anvil I just completed is 11/2' long, I would give you a similar piece if you were close by but 45 lbs. is too hefty to ship from Canada.

Attachment 18504

Yeah,

When I worked for the L&N Railroad (35 years ago) I found that rail is identified by how much a yard of it weighs. All else being equal, heavier rail gives a steadier platform and allows faster trains—plus it lasts longer.

Almost all the new rail that we installed was 139-pound rail. So far as I know that was the heaviest size rail in common use at the time. 139-pound is the only exact number that I can recall, but I think that we installed some reconditioned 110 or 115-pound rail in Virginia due to a lack of 139-pound. Some of the old little used sidings had very old 80 or 90-pound rail.

There was some silly commercial extant back then that showed a cowboy hatted track worker carrying a whole section of rail on one shoulder—but someone pointed out, this would have been far less improbable in the old west days when they used 80-pound rail—still, that would be a mighty heavy load.

Anyway, I ramble.

Saxon Violence

I have wondered that same question for a long time. I don't know if there is a ready source for track pieces. You might try ebay and local craigslist. The likelihood is low. You can sometimes find real anvils for $3.00 per pound or less. I wouldn't pay more, though I've seen listings for lots more. Emerson makes a great anvil out of cast 4140 steel, and you can get them for about $700 including shipping, as long as the anvil weighs 150 pounds or less. Not everyone knows that UPS will ship any package that weighs 150 lbs or less. My recommendation is to save your money and buy a real anvil, not cast iron, not an anvil-shaped object, and nothing from hobbofrate. They have some good stuff, but not anvils. I have also read that you can buy a smaller anvil and tightly couple it to a heavy base to increase the apparent mass. It's not as good as a 200 or 300 lb anvil, but it will serve you well until you can buy a good heavy one.

Depends on where you live. I know a place in Puyallup Wa.(next door to Tacoma) that sells it. A&K Railroad Materials, Inc. | Railroad Track Building Materials
It has been a few years since I stopped there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Saxon Violence

Yeah,

When I worked for the L&N Railroad (35 years ago) I found that rail is identified by how much a yard of it weighs. All else being equal, heavier rail gives a steadier platform and allows faster trains—plus it lasts longer.

Almost all the new rail that we installed was 139-pound rail. So far as I know that was the heaviest size rail in common use at the time. 139-pound is the only exact number that I can recall, but I think that we installed some reconditioned 110 or 115-pound rail in Virginia due to a lack of 139-pound. Some of the old little used sidings had very old 80 or 90-pound rail.

There was some silly commercial extant back then that showed a cowboy hatted track worker carrying a whole section of rail on one shoulder—but someone pointed out, this would have been far less improbable in the old west days when they used 80-pound rail—still, that would be a mighty heavy load.

Anyway, I ramble.

Saxon Violence

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Great info. Should have known that a rail wasn't just a rail. There has been a number of people trying to sell rail pieces on the local CL. I thought they wanted too much. Today I checked back and there is a semi done one for $25, that I could handle. I was also shocked to find out you could get in trouble for having some rail as the last shop I worked at was next to tracks and was littered with swapped out rails. Some had been there for who knows how long. Another example of learning some cool stuff after the original post.

I know I'll be sorry I asked this...but what do you guys use anvils for?

Whenever I see a pesky chipmunk in the flower bed, I hang the anvil from a rope over his hole. Then when he comes out, he trips over a tiny thread that I stretch across the hole, that knocks the stick out that it holding the anvil up and drops it on his head. :)

When I am not killing chipmunks with it, I use it to flatten or straighten steel plate or rod. Or to bend steel plate or rod. Or to shape heated metal using hammers. Or to set rivets. SO MANY uses for anvils, even if you don't have chipmunks.

Lots of videos online. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZToka1-8oQA

Once upon a time.......I worked for a machine/fab shop that built machinery for sale. Big stuff. Some of it so big that the carriages rode on RR track. The customer would spec how long of a run they needed and we would weld it together and cut it to length accordingly leaving a regular 6" to 2 1/2' length to go in the (Gasp!) dumpster. This didn't happen every single day, but once every other month or so. If asked, we employees were usually just given a leftover chunk of it. If someone from the outside world had asked, I'm not real sure what they would have done. Maybe there's a large outfit somewhere around you that specializes in the stuff big enough to need RR track to operate on. Good luck!

Last time I took some scrap metal to the recycling yard (about a year ago), the guys that work there were torch cutting several sticks of rail into more manageable lengths. Didn't think about asking about it at the time, but seems like as good a source as any to try. That was in Sherman, TX, but I'm sure your results will vary.

if u can get it the realy goo stuff is the shipyard rail crane rail, its really wide and thick, about idk 90-80 lbs per foot

Some thirty five years ago one of my customers was a major railroad. My contact person came to my office one day and gave me a piece of rail/anvil. He had one of the shop guys taper one end with a cutting torch. It's about 18-20 inches long. I need to weigh it some time.

+1 on the ask your recycler. The place I use has a load of it sitting out front and I think they are sorta stuck with it unable to sell it to their own wholesale buyers for the same reasons we can't. But I wouldn't be surprised if they gave you some. might have to bring a portaband though, most places are a bit jumpy about acetylene :)

These same sized rails were also installed on electric overhead crane runways in the steel industry circa 1980's. When the expected loads exceeded the 139 lb rail system capacity the runway rails were paralled with a seconded 139lb rail on each side for a total of 4 rails. Some of these overhead cranes had a total of 32 wheels. These heavy loads were mainly on the melt shop ladle cranes and some slab yard cranes. I wish I had had the forsite then to aquire a 18" section of 139lb rail back in the day when it was easy to come by for me.

In Joplin Missouri ( about 5 miles from where I live ) there happens to be a railroad salvage ( just a small one ) they will sell you just about any length you want of R.R.Rail and they will cut it to length ( for a small fee ). They sell it by the pound. The most of the R.R. salvage is just cut up, loaded onto rail cars and shipped of to a foundry to be made into new rails.

Are they part of a network of salvage yards working with the railroad companies? I'm wondering because that would mean that there would be more of them out there. Joplin is too far to drive for me! (NW Alabama)

a friend of mine made one of these up so he could put in back of his truck and have it on a job site if he thought he might need it . it did work ok for him, but u need some way to mount on back of truck,maybe attach to trailer hitch,anyway whenever he has left over welding rods he burns um up on the side and corners of his,says more weight and mass are needed,

Quote:

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Originally Posted by madokie

a friend of mine made one of these up so he could put in back of his truck and have it on a job site if he thought he might need it . it did work ok for him, but u need some way to mount on back of truck,maybe attach to trailer hitch,anyway whenever he has left over welding rods he burns um up on the side and corners of his,says more weight and mass are needed,

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That's a good idea. I inherited a few boxes of antique welding rod from my dad. I wouldn't trust them for any safety-related welds, but they may be fine for adding mass.