Matt, file manager works quite reliably for attaching pictures but if you use the fifth icon from the left right above where you are typing, the picture appears directly in the post and people don't have to click on it to see it.
I agree that most of what people use anvils for, can be done equally well by a couple of feet of heavy rail. I'd be inclined to mill the top flat to get a flat surface I think, or perhaps weld it to something so it would sit base-upward. The real anvils have some important features for trades-level blacksmithing, but just hammering things flat doesn't call for those features. A really good anvil has a hardened steel top face sweated onto a wrought iron body, and therefore doesn't dent on top unless you hit it really hard with hardened steel, whereas your rail is hard but not nearly that hard. However compared with the common practice of using the top of a vice for an anvil, the rail is way, way better.
Any hints for where we could all buy a piece of serious rail?
