Thanks to everyone for the good suggestions and advice. I have some CMA phosphor bronze wire, but have yet to use it for grabirons and brake rigging. Seems to me that some commercial grabs already use phosphor bronze wire, but are oversize in diameter.

STMFC construction has been held up for a bit by work on my layout. But, I recently built a Westerfield CN 48' gon and used .007" brass wire for grabirons. A bent grabiron on a gon is not a big issue, as anyone familiar with the abuse that these cars receive can understand.

I want to build my STMFC's with scale-sized diameter grabs and other wirework, and thus I'm looking for material that is to scale and will stand up to handling--which is why I'm considering using stainless wire for the smaller diameter stuff. I kitbashed a tank car using D/A .019" brass wire for the tank railing, and I have no issues with its strength. But the smaller stuff just bends way too easily.

One would think that .008 stainless wire would be as easy to cut as say, .015" brass wire, right? Smaller wire, less resistance to shearing force when cutting it, etc.?

Steve Lucas.