To add to Michals pic of Sabaton’s Krupps, here’s a TV cabbed Berliet
Evening all,
Oh where do I start…at the beginning I suppose…
Davidoff, now there is a problem worthy of M Poirot!..The little grey cells do recall…
January 1978, and the Geneve Motor Show…and a lot of bruised egos! For this was the Show, where at last Berliet and Saviem would be shown as one marque…Renault…and from both camps there was real animosity…I remember rushing about trying to get “executives” from each side to even speak to each other! Even worse the striped background to the ten lorry, and three engine display was in Saviems Corporate colours! Even worse, the name Berliet was in lower case letters, and Saviem in capitals…boy oh boy there were some real sore heads here!!!
Then there was the “problem” of the multilingual Suisse operators…my French was decidedly, (Factory), Norman, Italian was …well patchy…so we had a delightful young lady from Paris, Marie-Chantelle…whose linguistic ability encompassed French, Italian, German, Serbo Croat, and Russian…plus a rather charming mix of BBC English…and Liverpudlian Scouse!!!..And during the duration of the Show she, and I were to spend quite a few hours together…for she had a devastating sense of fun…together .trying to make calm the turmoil of the Corporate “blood letting”…also perusing the shop windows of Geneve…and introducing her to the delights of travelling upon a bus…and the shared delights of many Coffee shops…and trying to teach her “proper” English…as spake around Dudlie!..but that is of little consequence in our search to help David!..So to business…
The stand presented the new Renault Vehicules Industriels product line up,
From Saviem,
SG 3.5 tonne
Serie J 7.5/13 tonne.
Our new “Flagships”
Berliet TR305 4x2 and 6x4 tractor and Porteur, (rigid).
Berliet TR350 4x2 and 6x4 tractor and rigid drawbar…Actually the 356hp versions.
The Engines.
Saviem 798 turbo 130 hp,
Berliet 12 litre 06.35.40.
Berliet MIVS 08.35.30. V8 14.88Litre turbo@356 hp.
The stand also introduced “our” new Importer / Concessionaire for Suisse/ Liechtenstein, Nubag AG, of Prattelin, Nr Basle, located close to the Zurich-Basle highway. I was later to spend quite some time working with Nubag on the “drop frame” Saviem Distribution lorry, that Coca Cola so liked in Europe, and “we” adapted for the Mack Midliner in the USA…which became such a volume seller!
Now to the “nub” of the question regarding Welti Furrer, and their TRH!
Following the show I was speaking with some people from Nubag, and they told me that the TRH, (Which had been classified in documentation by Venissieux as a model TRS), was “almost sold” to a prominent haulier! The vehicle was rated , (if my memory serves me correctly), as 28 tonnes solo, 38 tonnes articulated combination, and 120 tonnes as a special types.And she had the ZF Range change option. In France the TRHs were rated at 150/180 tonnes, and often easily worked at 200 tonnes plus!
While we were , (suffering), at the Geneve Show, I contacted the “Mad Monk”, Graham Montgomerie, of the UK Commercial Motor, to see if there was a potential article regarding the similarity between the UK and Suisse operations being out of step with mainland Europe regarding weights…and any benefit in positive reporting about the Show offerings…I think that we flew Graham, or one of his colleagues out to do a report, but I do not know if anything was written…if it was it should be around the end of Jan, start of Feb 1978.But I hoped to major on the TR Range.
Me , I was back in Milano…and clutching a very funny letter from Marie-Chantelle, written in her version of “Black Country Dialect”…and it was good!..
So David, I feel that there is a good chance the TRH, from the Show Stand, is the Welti Furrer one, and the documentation to the Authorities may read TRS, or TRH/TRS…
Hope that this helps.
Now another conundrum…Fergie posts a picture of a Blue TRH, complete with “big” 5th wheel…looking at the 94 number plate, and the splayed beacons on the roof, I suspect that this TRH is one of the four operated bty Vitry sur Seine Operator, Dessierer H Zucchoni. Perhaps France`s equivalent of our Wynns. Dessierer had some of its TRHs, and later TRH360s fitted with torque converters,and the lorries so fitted carried large cooling fans behind the cabs…But surely if this was her pedigree, one would paint her in her original colours?
The strength of the TRH was that unlike the earlier, (and mighty) TBO, and GBOs, the TRHs could run at normal Highway speeds when running light, or inside the code of 38 tonnes gtw. The older versions could cope with unbelievable weights…but were as a consequence quite “sedate” when returning empty!
That picture of the (I suspect Suisse registered ) deep blue Unic “over the edge”, with the steering bogie trailer seems in a familier place, is it on the Simplon■■?
And that elegant TR 305, in the distinctive colours of the TR305 version of Le Centaure, lettered in Capelle Meubles…that is a rare lorry indeed!
And lastly Robert, Max Meynier, a phenominem that we never experienced in this Sceptered Isle, a media personality that introduced our industry, and the personalities within, to the general public, creating an image that was so positive, and gave the drivers and associated staff a status that we all truly deserve…and he was a “hoot”…could take the Michael…and take it back…from that glass studio atop the Calberson multi story warehouse in Paris…there has never ever been anyone like him…and he was good at Shakespeare!!!
Im away for a refreshing Bollinger…and quietly to remember the slender Marie Chantelle…where did she put those Pastries that she consumed so elegantly…and easily?
Cheerio for now.
At Genove Motor Show, the Berliet stand before the link with Saviem.
Something different…Photo taken a few years ago, and the other at the same place taken recently…a kind of before and after…
A few pics, not just the lorry, but something going on around it, or in the background
Tankers…
Dunno exactly what was going on here, where or why, but I’d hazard a guess that out French colleagues were having a bit of a “meeting” and we were all invited to join, like it or not !..bless. 
Fergie is the last picture of "Bill & Ben " who used to like to stop the the Engerlander drivers for anything and everything on the Le Harve to Ruaone road 
cheers Johnnie 
Hi Dave,
I guess Liz has nipped out 
great pics,love the now and then ones,were you on the bike when you took the modern ones ?
Thanks to you,Saviem,and Pete and all the others for all the brilliant photo’s and information on this fantastic thread,it just gets better and better.
“Apres moi le deluge” as they say in Coseley
Regards
Richard
MaggieD:
Hi Dave,I guess Liz has nipped out
Thanks to you,Saviem,and Pete and all the others for all the brilliant photo’s and information on this fantastic thread,it just gets better and better.
“Apres moi le deluge” as they say in Coseley
Regards
Richard
No problem Richard, i have found some pic’s of some Unigate milk floats from Trysull road dairy,you may have been a passenger on one of them? I will post them tomorrow for you, Cheer’s Pete
MaggieD:
Hi Dave,I guess Liz has nipped out
Thanks to you,Saviem,and Pete and all the others for all the brilliant photo’s and information on this fantastic thread,it just gets better and better.
“Apres moi le deluge” as they say in Coseley
Regards
Richard
Richard…hope you and Angie are OK
Liz was out on the lawn with a couple of friends doing her tai chi thingy, so sneaked in and whacked a few on…beats doing sqwaws work…
No, I didn’t take those " after" pics…they’re good though aren’t they.
Still stuns me the knowlege that John and others have on this thread, really interesting…I’m only good for a few pictures I’m afraid…
Take care.
MaggieD:
Hi Dave,I guess Liz has nipped out
Thanks to you,Saviem,and Pete and all the others for all the brilliant photo’s and information on this fantastic thread,it just gets better and better.
“Apres moi le deluge” as they say in Coseley
Regards
Richard
I must second that. Fantastic! A big thank you.
Johnny
Evening all,
Where on earth is Fergie producing all these superb pictures from? Talk about basking in nostalgia! I always loved Britagne, not just the place and its scenery…but the Hauliers were so similar in outlook to us over here. Get it done, get down the road, get it on…and gone! Their equipment carried some beautiful liveries…not just the standard “factory primer coat”…proud of where they came from, and proud to show it off!
In the days of “Les Halles”, all down Ave Sebastopol you could pick out the lorries from Britagne…pinging and tinging as their big motors cooled…but they were never ever let to go cold! Atlantic Meteor ( the 12 litre Berliet/Chereau fridges of TptsVerdier of La Rochelle) , Tpts Boissell from Finistere, Coz et Mahe, from the same location with their wonderful beautiful Bernard integral fridge bodied 6x2s by Noyal sur Villaines Pelpel, (dripping hot oil in a true Gardner 150 fashion), on Paris`s smooth boulevards.
When I was coming back via Paris in the 60s I would always stop on Sebastopol to just enjoy the chaotic atmosphere…and dream of driving such wonderful lorries. Never then would I have imagined working with such evocative names…and as here in Great Britain …some were good…and some…oh dear me!!!..Its called a "learning curve…but did it need to be so steep■■?
Now Transports Mahe, originally based at Quimper, with its blood red fleet of Saviem 200, and 240s back in the 60s. The only difference being a little “adjustment” on the diesel pump, to make the 200 into a 240…260…plus!..No wonder VIT, (Valenton International Transports), liked those early Saviems for its long distance transports… Italy and beyond!
Carryfast, you were right in your observation regarding the wonderful suitability of that VIT drawbar SM280, (the early V8 240), coupled to a three axle remorque. But did the demount equipment, and trailer look a little “odd” as a French machine? It should have done so, as those VIT drawbars and trailers were bodied by the Dutch builder Burg. VIT ran a considerable number, (both SM240, &280s), in a similar configuration, and smooth stable outfits they were…except across the Saraha…where those little wheels “dug in” very easily…and further trips were with the more conventional "wheel at each corner " drawbars.
Just like the Mahe ones, operated after their move to Le Mans…right on the circuit…and hospitality at race time was…noisey…to say the least! Nice outfit Mahe…and easy to spot on the road with that livery!
But Pete, exactly the same shade of Red was used by Brian Meridith, for his Fordhouse Transport operation. Like Mahe, his AECs, and then later Big J Guys, were always immaculate. Those Mk 5 AECs on your picture were loaded with chassis from John Thompsons…now reborn as a logistic centre for Culina in Ettingshall…
Brian always had a few new lorries in stock…purchased against tax in the days of 100% Capital Allowances…Happy days… Was it not his last Big J that ended up at Thomas Ingles, unregistered, when Chris Kelly bought the operation?
Now that Delisle SM, (tired as all of Calbersons older vehicles were), coupled to a single axle, and then a “dog” two axle on a drawbar…I would not volunteer to back that little outfit onto a bay…and if any of you could…you are a lot better, and braver than me!!! The outfit shows, (as in the UK), the true incompatability between rail and road transport. But Delisles parent Calberson was, and is, one heck of a company.Worthy of a few lines one night…for did they not run a quantity of English Guy Vixen box vans back in the `50s…and loved them…wanted more…but Guy dropped its lightweights…and the Goliath/Invincible was born…but not for Calberson…
Seems just where we came in…
Im away for a refreshing Bollinger…for tomorrow I shall try to bury myself in my building endeavours…when I really wish to be out in the fields!
Thank you all for such happy memories…
Cheerio for now.
A few for Maggie D, did you help out on any of these vehicles Richard? Cheer’s Pete
sammyopisite:
Fergie is the last picture of "Bill & Ben " who used to like to stop the the Engerlander drivers for anything and everything on the Le Harve to Ruaone roadcheers Johnnie
Dunno John, the photos didn’t come with any write up…They always travelled in pairs for sure, so if you spotted one you knew there was another lurking somewhere… When I was doing the convoy exceptionel work, we got to know some of them quite well, there was always a coffee cognac before and after they’d escorted us through a town…great bunch of guys and never had a problem…
Saviem JM240 from Mahé with trailer and the drivers.
A line of Saviem with Chereau complete fridgebody “GR 12”( like Berliet ,we don’t know why…) from Verdier company.
Bernard 6RA26 with complete Chereau fridgebody from LeCoz et Mahe. Notice the hub reduction standard in Bernard products.
