HISPANO-SUIZA & PEGASO

A part from all the imported trolleybuses, Spain had also a modest trolleybus industry of its own. On the one hand, many of the imported BUT and Vetra chassis received bodywork from Spanish firms. To name a few Seida (from Bilbao), MACOSA (Materiales y Construcciones Sociedad Anónima) from Valencia and Irizar, a company from the Basque Country that is still active in coach building. On the other hand, some companies also built chassis: the Barcelona 'Gilda's' for example were built by the local firm of 'Maquinaria y Elementos de Transporte' (Maquitrans). Its workshops also delivered the semi-PCC trams of the 1200 series (see Barcelona for a picture). Maquitrans also built mini-cars and motorcycles in the nineteen fifties, in later years in cooperation with the Italian company Ducati.

Most Spanish-built chassis were delivered by Pegaso, a company that had its origins in the famous Hispano-Suiza company.

Hispano-Suiza was a Spanish company with a Swiss head engineer, Mark Birkigt. In 1901 an attempt by Birkigt and Emilio de la Cuadra to produce a bus failed. Enters Damián Matteu, a Catalonian industrial, who makes the necessary investments and saves the company from bankruptcy. Then production of truck and bus chassis starts. In 1908 Hispano-Suiza extends its range to include luxury cars, which became famous for their state-of-the-art technical features: in the 1920es and 30es, a self-respecting monarch or movie star had to have at least one Hispano. Another line of business which brought fame to Hispano-Suiza were aircraft engines: enormous quantities were built during the First World War for the French Airforce.

At the end of World War II, the Spanish industry, including Hispano-Suiza, was in very bad shape. The Spanish government decided to nationalize the production of buses ands truck to speed up the renewal of the country's transport fleet. It bought the workshops and patents of Hispano-Suiza and transferred them to newly-founded ENASA, « Empresa Nacional de Autocamiones » (National Truck and Automobile Company) in 1946. The following year ENASA delivered its first trucks, still to Hispano designs, but with the brand name Pegaso. Soon, however, new trucks and buses were designed, and some trolleybus chassis were built.
Pegaso acquired international fame by the production of highly advanced chassis for sports cars, named Z-102 and Z-103. The Spanish authorities invested lots of money in this loss-making project, mainly to show the world that this poverty-stricken, backward country, boycotted by most countries because of its Fascist government, was capable of producing high-tech cars second to none. Only about 80 were built (see this site for Pegaso sports cars).

Pegaso continued to build trucks and buses, as it does to the present day. However, ENASA merged with IVECO (itself the result of a merger between the Industrial Vehicle Divisions of, amongst others, FIAT and Magirus-Deutz) in 1990; at present, their trucks are marketed as IVECO, and their buses as Irisbus.

A Castellón Pegaso. Photo coll. Mariano Rodríguez.

A Pegaso of the ‘square’ type in Zaragoza. Photo coll. Mariano Rodríguez.

Besides buses, both Hispano-Suiza and Pegaso produced trolleybus chassis. The trolleybuses that were built on them can be divided into several types. One of them consists of the Pegasos built for Bilbao, Castellón, Santander (series 11-25) and La Coruña: these were built between 1953 and 1955, received CENEMESA electric equipment and were bodied by Macosa. The photos above show this type. The photo below shows a similar bus delivered as a prototype to Madrid with a slightly different front.

The other type of Pegasos was in service in Zaragoza and Cádiz, two companies belonging to the Carde y Escoriaza Group, which also supplied the bodies. These were two-axled cars with a two-door configuration and a rather squarish bodywork.

In addition there was the series 1-10 of Santander. According to one source these cars had MAN chassis, but pictures show some cars having a CyE logo (no doubt referring to Carde y Escoriaza, who bodied the vehicles), while other carry Pegaso’s white horse symbol; I take it therefor that Pegaso supplied the chassis.

An interesting experiment was trolley nr. 8010, a three-axled car with Seida bodywork and Vetra electric equipment. The trolley was built in 1961, and it shows that Pegaso still believed in the future of the Spanish trolleybus. However, the Spanish trolleybus systems didn’t live up to this expectation, choosing instead to buy second hand London vehicles. The trolleybus was no commercial succes, amd after having been on trial in amongst others Barcelona, the car was sold for scrap. The information presented here comes from mssrs Lino López-Cotarelo, Roland LeCorff en César Plancheria, for which I am very grateful.

HISPANO-SUIZA TROLLEYBUSES:

The Pegaso that ran on the Madrid system. Photo coll. Mariano Rodríguez.

PEGASO TROLLEYBUSES:

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