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On AMC’s television series “Breaking Bad,” the “White House” at 3828 Piermont Drive is home to one of Albuquerque’s biggest meth cooks; but to trolley owners Jesse Herron and Mike Silva, Walt’s home is just one stop along the route of their popular trolley tours.
Herron and Silva are the co-founders of ABQ Trolley Co., an independently owned trolley tourism group that takes tourists on 85-minute trips around the city. Among the trolley’s many tour routes is the “BaD Tour,” a three-hour tour that takes “Breaking Bad” fans to several shot locations of the popular television show.
The “BaD Tour” began in mid-July this year, debuting the same day as the opening episode of the show’s fifth season. Silva said tickets for the first tour sold out within minutes of their release on the company’s web page.
“When we launched our first tour, tickets sold out in such a record time that we kind of looked at each other,” Silva said. “We realized our ability to add more tours, and once we made the decision to add more, those sold out just as fast as the first one. It’s been very popular — more popular than we thought — but we knew it was going to be successful. It’s been a really good thing for our company so far.”
ABQ Trolley Co. began in 2007, after friends Herron and Silva noticed the lack of a tourism trolley within the city. After creating their own custom trolley with a company in Oregon, the two opened business in 2009. Their trolley is the only stucco-decorated trolley in the world.
The two were fans of the show before beginning the tour. Herron said the pair’s enthusiasm for the popular drama series stems not just from the show’s writing, but from the show’s setting as well.
“I think it’s cool for people in Albuquerque to see our city as a background and as a main character in Breaking Bad,” he said.
“It’s hard to imagine Breaking Bad without Albuquerque as a backdrop. We live here, we drive down these streets every day, and for that to pop up on our screen every Sunday night — there’s viewers from across the world seeing Albuquerque on this huge world stage, it’s really cool. It renews a sense of pride in your city.”
During the tour, fans will stop by Walt’s house, the “Crystal Palace” (which is actually the Crossroads Motel) and the fictional restaurant/meth drug-front Los Pollos Hermanos, known to locals as the New Mexican restaurant Twisters.
Herron said the tour has often led to celebrity sightings. On the trolley’s first tour, the two were able to set up a special appearance with Breaking Bad star Steven Michael Quezada, who plays Steven Gomez on the show. During another tour, actor Rodney Rush, who plays “Combo” on the show, drove by the trolley and asked passengers how they were doing.
The two don’t claim to be authorities on Albuquerque or Breaking Bad. Silva said the tour’s back-and-forth nature between tourists lends itself to a learning experience with every tour.
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“On the Breaking Bad tour, we might get someone who’s a real hard-core fan, and will talk about the show and will share with us,” Silva said. “Jesse and I don’t promote ourselves as some kind of historical experts of Albuquerque, we instead pride ourselves as guys who love Albuquerque. The past three years we’ve worked this, we learn new things about the city all the time, and we like that — we’re consistently growing.”
