We rescue a story that reached many hearts of our Castroseguidores and could not be missing from our blog: the restoration of a beautiful Pegaso Comet by Avelino Garrido, who also tells us the story of the “chato”, built by his great-grandfather in the 50s.
A restored historic vehicle: Pegaso Comet 5061/DR
In 1898, the Garrido company was founded in Cuntis, which provided service between Cuntis and Pontevedra via Moraña with horse-drawn carriages. Years later, the company continued to operate the same route but with a Pegaso Comet 5061/DR front-engine with an Arosa bodywork. In 1996, the company ceased operations and the historic bus stopped running that route.
In 1975, at the Santiago factory, this relic was acquired by a man, and it was his grandson, Avelino Garrido, who finished restoring it in 2019. The bus has 43 seats and a platform and still retains its original factory drivetrain, differential, electric brake, and transmission.
Avelino Garrido from Moraña can say that he has restored a historic bodywork that still retains the model identification on an original plate on the fuse box cover today.
A family tradition: the “chato” bodywork
Avelino also sent us photographs of a bus bodied in the 1950s in Castro Caride, in Vilagarcía, by his great-grandfather, Avelino Garrido Costoya. Even today, our friend Avelino keeps a piece of glass with the bodybuilder’s advertisement.
With the brand 3.H.C-COMMER, it was registered in ’55 with a wooden body, with 32 seated places + 10 on the upper deck, distributed in Berlina (1st class), Interior (2nd class), Imperial (3rd class), or Pescante, a name given in companies with a tradition of stagecoach transport to passengers who rode on the roof.
The seats were distributed in upholstered seats and jump seats, with curtains, foldable windows, manual doors, and interior grab bars. It was labeled on the sides with the letters Empresa Garrido and on the front visor with the route it operated. Also in smaller letters, Correos (Post Office), as it transported mail between these locations. The bus had a Russian chassis 3.H.C number 1R-3239-5, purchased from the Junta Liquidadora del Material del Automóvil in Madrid in 1954 for 74,551 pesetas. Its British engine was of the COMMER brand with the number 204711, 6 cylinders and 24 HP, assembled in Pontevedra.
The bodywork was nicknamed “chato” because, until then, engines were not located inside the bodywork, and therefore, not in the front exterior of the vehicle. This was a novelty at the time for better use of the interior space, which not everyone adopted.
Avelino tells us that when his father was little, because it was so unusual, he remembers people saying: “Garrido’s car has no engine”.
It operated many regular and charter services and covered many kilometers for the time in the 1950s and 1960s…
Without a doubt, this family story about the inheritance of the tradition of bodywork and bus companies deserved to be shared on Castrosua, as it shows a beautiful part of the tradition of the sector. Many thanks to Avelino for sharing this precious story with us.
