Most of you have probably seen ads for Cannon & Company Diesel Components. This company makes finescale detail parts for HO Diesel locomotives such as cabs, grilles, and fan housings, parts to update and finescale HO diesels. This company was founded in 1985 by the late Gordon Cannon, known as “Gordy” to his friends. But how many of you know that Gordy began in the early 60s with a company named Cannon Scale Models and he produced a number of finescale kits that would be worth buying today?
Gordy and I were hobby friends in the 60s and 70s. We were part of a group of modelers in the Bay Area building to On3 finescale (1/4AAR) wheel standards. It was great fun getting together to share our models.
The late Bill Coffey was one of our group and he had developed a Cerro Bend casting technique and was making all sorts of detail parts. When I first met Bill and saw his models, I was so excited he gave me a bag of parts. I went straight home and threw away my models and started all over again with Bill’s details and built a logger’s bunk house with full interior using Bill’s parts.
Later I converted a MixMaster into a casting machine and Bill showed me how to make RTV molds. Cerro Bend is great because it melts at such a low temperature it won’t burn you and the RTV molds use no heat so patterns can be made of styrene, paper, or cardboard. The late Len Madsen wrote an article in Model Railroader on casting Cerro Bend in cardboard molds. Cerro Bend also expands when cooling so it forces the metal into every nook and cranny of a mold making very sharp castings. The downside of this material is that it lacks strength and is expensive.
When Gordy graduated from the Oakland College of Arts and Crafts, he decided to start a business making finely detailed O scale kits using Bill’s Cerro Bend casting techniques. He rented a store front in San Carlos, California, and set up his shop with a sign, desk, chair, and file cabinet. Then he made a production spin casting machine and a vacuum chamber. But he needed multiple parts of the same parts as patterns for his production molds, so he came by and made multiple castings in my little MixMaster.
Gordy advertised his kits on the back covers of my first magazine Finelines. I don’t think I even charged him for the ads. His first kit was for a ¼-inch scale Dolbeer Donkey Engine. It has a beautiful plan, detailed Cerro Bend parts and a wood skid. He advertised it in the July 1972 issue of Finelines. Next, he produced a kit for a ¼-inch scale Engine Oil Facility based on one at the Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad in nearby Felton, Calif. The kit included three fuel tanks, wood footings, a Cerro Bend steam pump and castings and piping to plumb your facility. He took an ad for this kit in the September 1972 Finelines. He was busy.
Next Gordy made three sets of ¼-inch scale, unpainted Cerro Bend figures. One set was called The Crew, another Bystanders (advertised in the January 1973 issue), and the third Seated Figures with an ad for the figures and a separate steam pump in July 1973.
But O scale was not paying the bills, so Gordy went to HO scale and produced an exquisite American Hoist & Derrick Hoist Engine with Cerro Bend details advertised in the September 1973 Finelines followed by a Caterpillar RD-8 and a Letourneau Bulldozer in the July 1974 issue.
Finally, Gordy realized he could not support himself with Cannon Scale Models and took the job of the first Art Director and ad man for the new Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette. I believe he coined the slogan “Accurate Information for Fine Modelbuilding,” and headings “Robert’s Ramblings” and “New In Review.”
But alas, we could not pay him enough to survive on so he left to take a job with a major cardboard and box making company.
From time to time, he would come by with an O scale Diesel he was stripping of detail and adding on his own parts. This must have led him to found Cannon & Company Diesel Components in 1985.
Gordy was an excellent modeler and had scratchbuilt an On3 Climax and a three truck, On3 West Side Shay (fondly called “Big Emma”) that won First Place Steam Locomotives at the 1971 NMRA Convention in London, England. Irene and I, and Gordy attended that convention together.
Keep your eye open for any of Gordy’s early kits; they are worth having — and building.