Hi everyone. 

I'm hoping for advice on my rr track anvil stand on how to quit it down and how to set up the stand. I have a 6 foot log and I'm thinking of sinking it maybe 2 feet into the mud/clay soil but that's as far as I got. 

Any help would be appreciated 

Hi, Red, and welcome.

There are a number of RR track anvils shown in this thread:

 

And here:

 

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Welcome aboard Red, glad to have you. 

No, I most certainly would NOT sink a log in the ground for a rail anvil or heck any anvil. RR rail is most effective as an anvil mounted on end, the distance from the face and the far end is called the depth of rebound. On end the impact energy has to compress the rail through it's full length and returns the energy to the bottom of the work while the hammer is still decelerating in the hot steel. Laid on the flange rail flexes like a fishing rod and the energy is dispersed through the length returning very little. 

If you make the stand so you can lift the rail straight up and out you can turn it over and grid more bottom tool as seen on Charles's thread. One of our guys in the Alaska club made a vise to fit a vertical rail anvil. I'm betting his release 2 will have the welded pivot centered so he can flip the rail over and still use the vise.

Getting one to quiet down is a different kettle of fish. Some guys like bedding loud anvils in silicone calk, others wrap a chain around theirs, magnets help and on it goes. I'm sure there's a category for quieting anvils. My Soderfors anvil is dangerously loud if you miss a blow and hit the anvil instead of the work, even then it's loud. I mounted it on a steel tripod stand and it quieted down dramatically. It works on the same principle as chain or magnets, the difference in resonant frequency between anvil and stand self damp. I've never messed with a rail anvil but imagine it'd work.

Frosty The Lucky.

Thanks for all the ideas and information 

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