This is pretty light for an anvil that would be used by a blacksmith. So and anvil make from it, assuming it was 18' long, would be less than 55 pounds, after removing part of it by grinding, cutting, etc. Main line rail starts at about 110 puounds per yard. Railroad rail is gaged by weight in pounds per yard.

I would not start with 'light duty rail'. Now, if this is a 'waste of time', I would rather not do it and could look for a real anvil at industrial liquidations or some such, when I need one. I also have a 'hardfacing rod' in very small quantity. I have a decent quantity of various oil hardening tool steel filler rod, which I could use if so advised. Grinding will be done with a 3 HP grinder. If grind a part of the rail approximately flat, and then weld a piece of 4140 to the flat top of the rail (to form a flat part), and grind another billet to some horn like shape, and weld it to the anvil also, how usable would this be for small scale aplications? After a recent discussion in, I decided to take a quick peek here and ask a question. I do, however, have some things such as billets of 4140 steel of various sizes and a piece of LIGHT GAUGE railroad track (20 lbs or so). Because of the above and lack of space, I would like not to spend too much on a real anvil. My dad collected it for use on the farm in the 50's.I am not a blacksmith, but would like to have a anvil like object for pounding stuff. My anvil is made from a narrow gauge rail road that they used for logging and mining on the mountain behind my house, when they were finished they tore up the tracks and left it in piles all over the mountain. I didn't know there were so many rules around railroads. My forage harvester has metal alert to protect it from ferrous metals and is so sensitive that a couple of years ago when the street sweeper came up the road and was losing some of his metal bristles out of his brush, I couldn't pick up the rows along the road. About fifty were picked up from the field. Seems the railroad crew had been replacing some ties where the tracks ran alongside his field and someone decided they should see how far they could throw spikes. Hour later he's back, metal again, another set of knives, cutterbar and repair the cylinder once again. We spent the afternoon replacing a set of knives, cutterbar and repairing the damaged cylinder, sent him on his way. We had a farmer come into the shop early one after noon, picked up some metal in his forage harvester. I was warned off the chinese cast iron anvils as being very poor unless you want to weld a plate of tool steel over the stiking surface. I found one source selling new anvils for the best prices with $10 shipping. Add that scarcity to a re interest in blacksmithing and the prices for used ones are just crazy. Everyone that had one laying around cashed it in when scrap metal was at it`s high point. By me anvils were once plentiful and cheap, that is certainly no longer the case. Thanks guys, I enjoyed making it a great deal. I did some grinding but ran out of light and will finish it later. I toasted one set of plasma consumables doing the cutting and shaping. I used the LOTOS LTP5000D 50A Pilot Arc Plasma Cutter to cut out the center web and to rough in the horn before grinding, the center section cut easily at the 50amp setting and I had good results shaping the horn.I was able to remove the wire standoff from the plasma tips ceramic cone and use it like a whittling knife to pare away the steel a little at a time with almost pinpoint control like a sculptor shaves clay. One 12 inch piece of 5+ inch tall track and an 8 inch piece of 8+ tall track. As luck would have it in one afternoon I had been gifted two pieces of RR track that friends had in their garages. As it is the holiday season I have been running around handing out bottled Christmas 'Cheer' to friends and I now always ask everyone if they know where an anvil is or where pieces of RR track can be had. I`ve been looking for a reasonably priced anvil but have not had much luck, I also have been seeking a piece of RR track to make a poor mans anvil.

Railway track anvil weight