DEANB:
I suppose like you say if it was a demo it could have ended up with anyone,so we could be chasing shadows here looking for that colour scheme as in theory it could be any colour ■■
I meant the trailer, Dean, not the unit! Robert
I now have quite a lot more information about the Swiss NGCs from my contact there. Instead of simply adding all the details to this post I have turned it into a short report which also serves to sum up the rest of what we know about the Swiss NGCs. Here it is.
As reported before, Hans Burkhard of Zurich operated a fully sign-written NGC (ZH 120 919) driven by an Englishman named Harry who complained about its reliability and hinted at poor maintenance. Hans operated a second NGC (the one with the cream radiator) which he took on the Middle-East run until eventually he was accused of alcohol smuggling and had to abandon his tilt trailer in Saudi. After that his local driver, Marcel Roth, did Germany and Italy with the NGC. This included a contract to import new Schmitz trailers from Altenberge. One of the NGCs was eventually cannibalized for its running gear, which was installed in a Henschel F191 draw-bar outfit. Apparently, this wasn’t a success.
There were two more Swiss NGCs in addition to the two operated by H Burkard. These were both owned by M Knopfli AG (umlaut over the o) of Regensdorf. This is an engineering company that specializes in transmissions for heavy plant, power stations and marine engines.
One was sold in the late ‘80s to an owner-driver operating as Zimmermann transport who wrote it off in Poland. The other went to a collector who died so the ERF was sold. By the way, the cage on the Knopfli unit in the photos up the page was simply for carrying equipment, not for ballast.
The ERF importer and distributor for Switzerland was ERFIM AG of Neuhofstrassen 11, 4153 Reinach/Basel.
Robert
I wonder if the number plate on the Rolls Royce “ERF1” is still owned by a member of the Foden family, it is recorded as being displayed on a Bentley at the moment…
dave docwra:
I wonder if the number plate on the Rolls Royce “ERF1” is still owned by a member of the Foden family, it is recorded as being displayed on a Bentley at the moment…
I’m surprised the chairman of REVS hasn’t bought it! Robert 
robert1952:
I now have quite a lot more information about the Swiss NGCs from my contact there. Instead of simply adding all the details to this post I have turned it into a short report which also serves to sum up the rest of what we know about the Swiss NGCs. Here it is.As reported before, Hans Burkhard of Zurich operated a fully sign-written NGC (ZH 120 919) driven by an Englishman named Harry who complained about its reliability and hinted at poor maintenance. Hans operated a second NGC (the one with the cream radiator) which he took on the Middle-East run until eventually he was accused of alcohol smuggling and had to abandon his tilt trailer in Saudi. After that his local driver, Marcel Roth, did Germany and Italy with the NGC. This included a contract to import new Schmitz trailers from Altenberge. One of the NGCs was eventually cannibalized for its running gear, which was installed in a Henschel F191 draw-bar outfit. Apparently, this wasn’t a success.
There were two more Swiss NGCs in addition to the two operated by H Burkard. These were both owned by M Knopfli AG (umlaut over the o) of Regensdorf. This is an engineering company that specializes in transmissions for heavy plant, power stations and marine engines.
One was sold in the late ‘80s to an owner-driver operating as Zimmermann transport who wrote it off in Poland. The other went to a collector who died so the ERF was sold. By the way, the cage on the Knopfli unit in the photos up the page was simply for carrying equipment, not for ballast.
The ERF importer and distributor for Switzerland was ERFIM AG of Neuhofstrassen 11, 4153 Reinach/Basel.
Robert
Good to get some more details on them,there a few intresting bits there !
A new pic of Pountains.
Not seen that one ^^^^^ before, Dean! Robert
DEANB:
Found this dutch advert online.2
Bought some stuff off ebay and this turned up in one of the brochures,some sort of microfiche image.
Looks like it was taken when they did the brochure shoot as has the same united glass trailer.1
Brochure picture.
0
The first B/W picture (#20) is from an album that Peters’ Uitgeversmaatschappij from Deventer (also the publisher from the bi-weekly magazine “Auto en Transportwereld”) published. The cards
respectively pictures needed to be glued as you collected them in your childhood.
@Deanb…when you’re still searching for ERF-literature, please PM me with your contact-details
and what you’ll hope to find, I however am no longer able to respond by PM so please state your emailadress so we might proceed on some gems.
robert1952:
tiptop495:
robert1952:
We still don’t know anything about this one, parked apparently outside the offices at CDB Brussels. The pic appeared in Dai Davies’s history of ERF. I notice that it’s not in standard ERF demo livery, and with that white waist-band it looks as if it was ready to be delivered to its new operator, complete with Savoyarde tilt. Or it was in for service or repair. Either way, there must have been a company or o/d in Belgium (or even France) that matched that simple livery.Looking through old pics I can find a few Belgian hauliers of the period in that livery: Decotrans of Wielsbeke, Devreese of Waasten and Peeters of Arendonk; but I can find little history online. Also, none has the white roof. Robert
2
Hey Robert, couldn’t it be one for France because the trailer looks very French, think a Fruehauf.
The wide spead was more something for Belgium, but the french had them too, but not so common.
On the other hand, the safety bar on the side of the trailers (obliged from '72 on) looks that it would have been one for Belgium. Can’t see if it has mudguards, obliged here, but in France mostly not used, and not yellow weight plates on the right hand site to see but ■■?
Look at the pic even this was enough if the trailer was low.Eric,
That’s interesting Eric. As it was photographed at CDB it seems more likely that the unit was destined for a Belgian operator. But the trailer looks like a French Trailor Savoyarde in style. We know that TRUCK magazine used these for its Euro Tests so I suppose it’s remotely possible that one was kept at CDB for demo purposes - just guesswork! We’ll probably find out, given the rate of progress this thread has made over the last few weeks! Cheers, Robert
0
Unfortunately, after several enquiries, no final proof on the demonstrators. The red unit (with horizontal white) belonged to CDB and was ‘given’ to relevant prospects but no further information available on that picture. The numberplate was made blank for some reason?
The demonstrator as per the Preval Laitures is much of the same…prospects had the opportunity to ‘hire’ the unit for some days and then it went on to the next or was sold
after a repaint. We should feel lucky that at least some pictures are made and I think no
further information is to be expected on these continental demonstrators.
I fully expect more information about these Continental demonstrators. It is that high expectation that took us past page 6 and unleashed 120 pages of marvellous data and pictures on this thread! Robert
DEANB:
Couple of pictures.Willemstein.reg 87 69 RB
Ha! The Bubbleman pic from a new angle - great! Now, the pic of 87-69-RB is a new one on here; and the clearest yet of it in the livery of Goedkoop de Geus (nice ‘spready’ tilt too!). 
Robert
robert1952:
All this is absolutely brilliant news of course because it means we can now account for TWO NEW NGCs and a damned good day’s work, I’d say!Robert
210
Excellent news!
DEANB:
An old revs article.(Click on pages to read)
That’s very intriguing! I didn’t know of the existence of this article in REVS No 16. However, Wobbe did write a much updated version of it in REVS No 104 under the same title (European Flyers), which I scanned and posted early in the thread. There is still a lot of material out there - under beds, in garages, in lofts, in store cupboards - but there appears still to be much under our very noses tucked away in back-numbers of magazines or (as I discovered yesterday for the 5MW thread) even on old threads of this forum! The imperative remains: keep expecting and keep rummaging! Robert
With regard to the REVS article posted above by Dean, we still lack photographic evidence that HNV 59N actually joined the Pountain fleet. It has been mentioned in passing, on the Pountain Heavy Haulage thread, that ■■■■ Pountain went into lorry sales and displayed them on the front of his premises. Now there’s a clue. Could it be that HNV 59N was sent to ■■■■ for disposal, rather than joining his fleet? Robert
Hi Robert I think Pountains used it to pull a racing truck around rather than working it
cookie1:
Hi Robert I think Pountains used it to pull a racing truck around rather than working it
Bingo! I’ve lost count of the number of times you have come up with the information we need, Jerry! Thanks for that. We’ve got several pictures on this thread of HNV 59N with no sign-writing and a non-descript trailer like the one below: I’ll wager these were taken at race circuits. I’m sure someone out there will verify this. Robert
Although we very recently received info that the 1976 RAI exhibit in Amsterdam went to Groen, we are still left with two plausible contenders, leaving just a trace of doubt. Perhaps in the great scheme of things it doesn’t really matter, but here are the others. First the exhibit:
Then the Groen unit that it allegedly became:
Then the Barend Sjouw unit that it was previously claimed to have been:
And then the Vermeulen unit it was also previously claimed to have been:
Bloody tricky old business, history, isn’t it?!
Robert
robert1952:
cookie1:
Hi Robert I think Pountains used it to pull a racing truck around rather than working itBingo! I’ve lost count of the number of times you have come up with the information we need, Jerry! Thanks for that. We’ve got several pictures on this thread of HNV 59N with no sign-writing and a non-descript trailer like the one below: I’ll wager these were taken at race circuits. I’m sure someone out there will verify this. Robert
Seems a bit of a coincidence but after Pountains finished with it and Redcap had it they also look like
they were pulling a racing trailer. Living quarters or mechanics stuff or both in the front cabin,vehicle
behind. Looks like racing stickers on the front of the cabin ?