Thanks to everyone who responded to my question about replicating stranded steel cable. All great ideas. Greg Amer pointed me to the 'Beadalon' bead-stringing wire from Michaels. It worked perfectly Greg!

The prototype:

And attempting to capture the flavor at my HO fertilizer transload:

The winch is from Alloy Forms. The hook and pulley from Durango Press. The cable is Beadalon .015-inch 19-strand bead-stringing wire, which I sprayed with dullcoat. The anchor block is two pieces of styrene angle with 4 nut/bolt/washer castings.

In order to get the cable tight around the drum, I first had to drill a small hole into the drum itself and insert the wire end. Then I'd wrap a quarter turn, add a drop of CA, then wash, rinse, repeat. It was impossible to get the wire to stay tight at the starter hole location, so I hid this small imperfection by placing a tie plate up on end. I figure workers use that discarded plate for something 

The wire is a bit 'springy' and doesn't want to lie on the ground well. I ended up placing small dabs of Hodge Podge on the ground and placing a weight on top the wire to hold it down until the glue set.

Happy Holidays and I wish all you the best in 2021!

Jack