And Wire not?

I had a long conversation tonight with Jim of The Kamilaroi Model Railway fame http://kamilaroimodelrailway.blogspot.com.au/
We touched on many model railway topics as usual and I rang Jim in response to an email he had sent me regarding overhead wiring for layouts.
Gentleman Jim was actually doing some overhead for a friend on his layout. He is a few steps ahead of me in that my total battle chest is a few bags of various assorted insulators and two Southern Rail overhead staunchions.
Since the staunchions have been put in place, I seem to manage to bump my elbow on them. Pre electrification was never a problem.

Jim mentioned that he had purchased some brass wire off a company at Marrickville - A & E Metal Merchants. https://www.aemetal.com.au/Webstore/default.aspx When trolling through the various products it seems as if they are geared towards the jewellery and craft trade rather than a large metal merchant.

He had ordered some 0.5mm and 0.7mm wire. It comes in 10 metre lengths wrapped in a bag. Their prices seem amazingly cheap. The 10 metres of the 0.5mm wire was only $2.85 and the 0.7mm wire only $3.32.  He intends to use the 0.5mm wire for the contact wire and the 0.7mm for the caternary wire. This is true to prototype as the catenary wire is a thicker diameter than the contact wire.
Trolling through their website there are plenty of other materials suitable for the modeller. In the brass section they have various sizes of brass tubing in 30cm lengths. They also have round, square, half round and brass sheets. The brass sheeting would be good for etching or other model making.

They also sell fine small diameter drills (again aimed at the jewellery trade) and many other tools such as saw blades etc.

Don't worry if you can't make it to their store in Marrickville, their web site is well set out for online ordering. If you are going to visit the web site suggests that you pre-order as they don't have a showroom.

Anyway have a look at this site, it might be another good find for the modeller. Good one Jim.