Sunshine Trolley Experience

Brian and Mo Cranker discuss the Sunshine Trolley Tour in Medicine Hat, exploring its growth, history, and the unique experiences it offers to tourists and locals alike. They delve into the origins of the trolleys, the routes they take, and the community engagement through various tours and events. Mo shares insights about the challenges faced on the road and introduces the knowledgeable tour guides who enhance the experience for passengers. The conversation highlights the importance of tourism in the area and the joy of bringing people together through shared experiences.

The journey of the Sunshine Trolley began with a single vehicle sourced from Drumheller. Since then, it has grown to include trolleys from Newfoundland and Texas, each carrying its own story. The Trolley is more than just a means of transportation; it’s a cherished part of Medicine Hat's tourism scene. This unique mode of transport allows visitors to hop on and off at key attractions around the city. With three trolleys now in operation, the service has expanded significantly, catering to both locals and tourists alike.

In addition to its regular routes, the Sunshine Trolley also hosts seasonal tours such as the Holly Jolly Twinkle Trolley during the holiday season or special haunted  Medicine Hat tours in October. These themed rides provide a unique experience that showcases the city in a festive light.

Tickets can easily be purchased online via Medicine Hat Tourism website, making it convenient for anyone looking to explore Medicine Hat's sights. You can also book private tours for special occasions like family reunions or corporate events.

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Transcript

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Hey, this is Brian again. And I'd like to ask you to do a favor. We can't do this work without people like you. So if you can, please, like, share, subscribe. Tell your friends about bring back the porch. One we got from, Newfoundland. We used to call it the Red trolley, but now we have two red trolleys, so we have to rename them, the red and green one from Newfoundland. It was in South Carolina, and it was part of the transportation service there. It's a 2008, so it's not as old as people think. This episode of Bring Back the Porch, brought to you by Bernie Leahy, River Street Realty. Let's get you home. Clang, clang, clang went the trolley. Ding ding ding went the bell. Old Judy Garland song from a movie you might see on late night television from 1944. But it seemed to be appropriate because we have Mo Cranker here today from the Sunshine Trolley, which makes its return in the spring. Here in Medicine Hat Welcome Mo. Thanks for having. Me. How did you get involved with the trolley? I was at the Medicine Hat News. And, a job posting went up for tourism just to cover a, maternity leave and one thing led to another, and I got a full time position, and now I'm the manager of transportation. That's a long maternity leave. Yeah. Via this, have you you are Seinfeld, the yada, yada yada. Yada yada yada. Got I fill the position, yada yada yada. Now I'm managing vehicles. And now you're not at one, not two, but three trolleys. Three of. Them. How is it grown? Exponentially, yes. Yeah. It's. I wasn't on the team when we got the first one from Drumheller, but, it started as sort of a hop on, hop off from hotels to going to the downtown or Police Point terminal to. And then when I joined the team, we kind of switched to a more ticketed style event, and we've kind of really taken off after that. Yeah. Where did you say the first trolley came from? Drumheller. So it's it was from Drumheller. A guy was running it out there. He retired. We were able to purchase it with the help of a local businessman. And it originated actually from Quebec. We recently just learned that it went from Quebec to Drumheller to Medicine Hat. And then I tell the story the other two. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Then in 2022, a year after I joined the team, I found one out in Clogs Beach, Newfoundland. So I got to go check it out. And then we sent a driver and a mechanic out, and they brought it back from Sydney, Nova Scotia, about a week on the road. And then this most recent run from Arlington, Texas. And that was an adventure getting it here. I knew at some point I'd be importing a vehicle and, yeah, that was an experience. Yeah. Do you know anything about the history of these vehicles? Were they actually serviced, begin their life as a form of transportation, public transportation? Yeah. So the, the Drumheller one is a 1985 GMC motorhome. They got converted into a trolley. The One we got from, Newfoundland. We used to call it the Red trolley, but now we have two red trolleys, so we have to rename them, the red and green one from Newfoundland. It was in South Carolina, and it was part of the transportation service there. It's a 2008, so it's not as old as people think. And then there's 2011. It was in Arlington and it was taking people to football games, baseball games, Six Flags water park, picking up at hotels and moving people around. Okay. Now, who made the decision on the routes? Like, how do you decide where you're going to go and what you're going to do and who's going to tell people what we're seeing? Yeah, it depends on the tour. For the Guided City tour, I kind of inherited a bit of that Police Point Medalta, you know, there's some stuff you got to see when you're here. TePee, Medalta, Downtown. But we've got to play with it over the years. And, one of the maybe happy parts of the construction is that it's forced us to get a bit creative with where we go. And so a couple of years ago, the TePee was closed all summer. So we added the viewpoint up in Crescent Heights. Jeffries look-out by McCoy. And we can't take that off the tour now because we get people there and they're just blown away. People from out of town just, you know, I knew it was pretty here, but. Oh, my goodness, I can't believe, it's so nice. And then people who think the prairies are just flat, you take them up there and the tour guides can do the whole tour from up there. Yeah, you can see an awful lot of Medicine Hat's history from that viewpoint. Yeah, yeah. What have you learned from the people who are on the trolley about their perceptions of Medicine Hat? We hear a lot of, like I said, people from out of town who think it's just going to be flat and brown. And, you know, if we get a good rain or if we have a, you know, it's beautiful when you're standing up on the viewpoint. Yeah. It's it's been incredible just to see families get together, family reunions, people from all over coming here and, getting to enjoy what we have to offer. Yeah. Repeat customers. Oh, come on. More than once. Yeah. We, we started selling our own tickets within the past year, year and a half. And so we'll see. I won't name names, but we'll see people. Oh, she's buying tickets again, or he's buying tickets again. You know, they'll do every single thing we do. It's really, really cool. Or people who ride the trolley the summer and then with their, their side of the family and then their in-laws will come in town and they'll bring them again to see a different tour guide. And yeah, okay, you even did some I think, over the Christmas. We did quite a few. Yeah. The holly jolly twinkle trolley. Oh, that's, names, long name. Yeah. I can't take credit for it, but, it's stuck. Yeah. So it has definitely become a popular thing. How do people book it? Tickets dot tourism, Medicine Hat.com. Everything we have up there is for sale, and I think I don't know the exact number, but we did maybe 60 to 80 Christmas light tours just in December alone. Pretty much. That's a lot. Yeah. We got the new bus on the road just in time to, I ended up doing over two weeks in a row of driving every night and two a night. And it was, you know, we we sold out every single one. What's it like when you're on the trolley in December? Cold. Yeah. Yeah, it's I think one of the greatest parts about it. And it clicked with me this year on the Christmas Lights tour. It was a, it was a family who were just so happy that, you know, if you're doing that in your own car, one person has to drive one person just to stare at the maps and do the research and figure out where to go. But everybody can just be present in the moment when somebody else is driving and somebody else's tour guiding. So, yeah, it's a very present, intentional thing that people get to enjoy. Yeah. Now you have the tours in the summer that are set starting on Thursdays, I think. Wednesdays, and we're going all the way to Sundays this year. Okay. Now, those those are, running, what, 2 or 3 times a day? Two? Twice a day. Yeah. Okay. Now, people who can book private tours, how do they do that same thing. Yeah. They can go on our website. You can reach out to us from our website, our ticketing website. My email is all over the place, and they can call the visitor centre and get some information that way. And yeah, we do a lot of family reunions, weddings, birthday parties, yeah. Private ice cream tours or we do. We do a lot of private stuff. What's your horror story from taking the trolley around town? Horror story from. I don't want to jinx anything. I don't know if I've had anything that bad. I think, honestly, it's probably drivers, you know, say we're merging, trying to get up to speed so I can safely merge onto the highway, and people are piling behind you and cutting around you, which makes it incredibly dangerous. Or, you know, you'll you'll be pulling up. And because somebody is crossing the street and somebody will pull out from behind you and not realizing that you're slowing down for a reason. So it's almost out of it always. Other people that are, the problem. But you have to be prepared when you're on the trolley for the unforeseen. And when you mention the construction, you're sitting there and you're the host. And what are you going to talk about? You gotta know stuff. And that's why we have a team of wonderful tour guides so people don't have to listen to me. They can listen to people who have who know everything about the city. Tell us about some of those people. I mean, is this going to be the big grand reveal? Sure. Go ahead. Let's have a drum roll. Well, it's your moment, Brian Konrad's going to be doing Thursdays this year. I actually had a fellow stopped me and he said, I hear you're going to be doing the trolley. Says, I'm going to have to book a, book tour with you just to find out things that I don't know about Medicine Hat. So the pressure's on already. I haven't even roll the wheel. I'm not even telling anybody in the way. It's good. Yeah. So, yeah, it's, Coraline Gardner on Wednesdays, she did the interpretive center, I think, for 20 plus years. At this point. Then you're going to be on Thursdays. Sally Sehn she does the. She recruited you, and, she does the downtown walking tours. A column in the Medicine Hat News, very well known, Saturdays. Barry Finkelman, who has done a ton he was the original tour guide, executive executive director at Medalta for quite a while. And, very well known. And then Sundays, we're going to try out this year, gentleman named Trevor West. He approached me throughout the year and said, you he did one of Bill Cox's tours last year. Okay. And he just approached me and said this would be a dream job. I'd love to do this. I said, okay, put a script together. We'll do a family and friends ride. And, you know, a lot of people will say they want to do something, but they won't do it. He knocked it out of the park. Yeah. So, he's going to do some Sundays this year. Okay. Take us through the route we start up. At the tourism centre. Yep. Up at the visitor information centre. We work our way past the college, up Division. We do a kind of a snake through downtown, and we stop at the Esplanade. We get out there and often, Sally kind of started this. We'll take people out to the Duggan house, and she'll kind of walk people around, show them the old graffiti on the outside of it, talk with the garden. Get back on the trolley. Work our way to Medalta. So we go down north. Railway and, towards the clay district. Stop there, let people check out the gift shop. There we go. Work our way through Strathcona, up towards Crescent Heights and stop at the Jeffries viewpoint. And then we slowly work our way back to the visitor centre. Takes about 90 ish minute. That's. I was just going to say. To Vince, who is tour guiding, you. Know, if they run off at the mouth to take, you're parked and they're still talking. Yeah, they're, some of them. If if people are asking a lot of questions and they're really into it, I don't want tour guides to not. Yeah. You know. Yeah. If people are into it, let them have it. Let them. Enjoy it. What have you learned about the history of Medicine Hat, a. Lot of it is unbelievable. You know, doing Sally Bill, any of their tours, it's you can learn so much about what used to be here, what was still here. And I was joking with Sally, one time I was like, wow, a lot of buildings have burned down and a lot of churches and oh, well, this used to be here, but then a fire 100 years ago. Yeah. Lots of fires, because it's would have been really hard to deal with 100 plus years ago. Yes. Back in the, old CHAT days when I used to do Our Town. And every time, one of the episodes mentioned the fire, Dan Reynish said we should have a drink every time you mention fire, because it was it urban renewal that took a lot of our history, but also made the way for other things too. So. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So when do we start out what is the first date, when is it available? I believe so we always start, full blown guided city tours after Canada Day. So it'll be the first Wednesday after Canada Day. And I think that might be July 2nd this year. So it'll be right away. There and then, you know, we're already getting ready to do some spring tours. We do our school ride program all spring. We had 90 plus classes for the trolley last year. We get donations from Sunrise and Saamis Rotary to offer a heavily discounted rate to teachers. So we're getting ready to do that. And I'm just kind of working through some maintenance stuff right now on the trolleys. Okay, so you're the bus driver. You're the transportation manager. The mister fix it. I find people to fix things. I don't, I don't fix much myself, but, lots of maintenance and inspections and everything we have to do to stay on the road. It's got to be safe. It's got to be safe. And, you know, we have to pass an inspection every six months, so. Okay. Yeah. All right, well, anything else you wanted to touch on before we, pull over to the station and let everybody off? I don't think so. No. Yeah. Thank you. Good. Well, it will be a pleasure to be, one of the hosts on the Sunshine Trolley this summer. I'm looking forward to it. And, Mo Cranker. Thanks for the visit. Thank you. I'm.