Alternatively put the scoremark on a large piece of angle iron placed on a cinderblock, now stand on on end, have someone drop an anvil(large) on the other end. Post video! We'll either be very impressed or very amused :D  And You'll either owe someone a "thank you" or a "good kicking"

 

Ian

 

Hmm, the Darwin Awards come to mind.

 

How should I orient the rail, as it normally would sit or on it's side?

 

Teebs, sorry to derail your thread.

just watch out for all those other son of a birches!

 

It's truley amazing what can be done using large amounts of "grunt" labour

Ian, Is Frosty trying to get you to lick the rail in January in Alaska? Yes, don't do it! You'll be there till June.
I think that the striking with a cold chisel sets up the internal crystallization of the metal for a clean break whereas just cutting a shallow grove may not have the same effect. What say you Frosty?

Ian, Is Frosty trying to get you to lick the rail in January in Alaska? Yes, don't do it! You'll be there till June.
I think that the striking with a cold chisel sets up the internal crystallization of the metal for a clean break whereas just cutting a shallow grove may not have the same effect. What say you Frosty?

 

What, try to get someone to freeze their tong to a rail, who me???

 

I had a friend who was an accident investigator for the FAA and I learned quite a few wonderful tidbits about failure analysis. In this instance it's the cues a failed piece of metal gives. If you look closely at a piece of snapped metal, (steel is what we probably have the most experience with and it's on topic) you'll see little chevrons, or as the FAA cops call them arrowheads all pointing in one direction. They in fact point at one point and that's the point where the failure initiated.

 

How that pertains is the arrows almost always point at some little flaw, be it a stress crack, chisel cut or very small ding. We as blacksmiths call these little surface imperfections "cold shuts."

 

Ever cut glass? A glass cutter doesn't "CUT" the glass, it scores it, just a long ragged bottomed scratch and we know what happens when we apply a little shock. It breaks along the weakened line, the score, the cold shut.

 

A chisel cut bottoms in a sharp "V" where a disk grinder yields a rounded groove. We prevent cold shut failures by blunting our butchers, radiusing our anvil edges, rounding the bottom of a choil and such.

 

So, lacking first hand experience beyond watching a rail crew do it once and talking to the guys, my vote is for the chisel score but wouldn't be surprised if a disk ground groove wouldn't work a treat too.

 

Frosty The Lucky.