When Kay and Jon Normington turned an old Victorian home not far from the long since abandoned Manchester and Lawrence Railroad line into a country store five years ago, they had no idea what would be coming down the tracks.

Since then, much of the former railroad line, which at one time brought passengers, mail and freight loads into Windham, has been put to a new use – a 4.1-mile paved bicycling and pedestrian path that will someday link Salem with Derry.

Though folks using the path were already stopping by for a bite to eat, the Normingtons said plans to rehabilitate the exterior of the town’s two decaying depot buildings and turn the area just around the corner from their Kitchen at Windham Junction into a trailhead have got them excited.

“It used to be the heartbeat of the town,” Normington said, standing beside a collection of photographs and postcards from a time when the now quiet intersection just around the bend from the railroad station was home to a sawmill, cider press, post office and general store.

“(With the buildings repaired) this will become a destination again. It’s an asset to the rail trail. This brings business to the rail trail just as they bring customers to us. It works both ways,” she said. “This is a jewel in our town. It’s different and unique, and we’re lucky to have it.”

Using funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Mark Samsel, chairman of Windham’s Depot Advisory Committee and a member of the Windham Rail Trail Alliance, expects stabilization work on the exterior to begin sometime late fall or early next spring. That will include removing several additions put onto the buildings in the 1960s, doing some electrical work and putting on a new coat of paint. Samsel envisions the Windham Depot and the railroad line returning to a transportation connection with commuters, tourists and residents flowing back and forth from Derry through Windham and into Salem.

“It was an asset that I don’t think many people in town realized was there. They weren’t aware of it,” he said. “When the trail was developed, the trailhead (was) where people parked and that’s where we draw people to now, they’re recognizing the buildings ... Now it’s gained importance and awareness. There is a lot more interest in that area.”

Spreading to Salem The project in Windham to revitalize the railroad line and the depot buildings has been successful enough to spur on similar efforts in neighboring Salem. Standing outside the once deteriorating Salem Depot building, nestled between a restaurant and a strip mall on the busy corner of Main Street and Route 28, Beverly Glynn points to the Normingtons’ store as an example of what she would like to see develop around the train station once Salem’s section of the rail trail is complete.

“With the help of the rail trail, I think the depot will revitalize some of the businesses here. We’re hoping people will stop by for an ice cream cone and do a little shopping or go to Sal’s for a pizza,” she said. “This was the focal point of Salem at one time, and we’re hoping it will revitalize this area and bring more people into town.”

To date, the town’s Historic Commission has raised about $170,000 of what is estimated to be a $210,000 restoration project, largely through private donations, contributions from local businesses and charity groups and games of chance at the Rockingham Park race track, according to Henry LaBranche, spokesman.

The group is hoping to raise a further $70,000 from local businesses in the next six months through a state tax credit program.

LaBranche hopes the twoyear long project will be done this fall, but said that the work was completely dependent upon donations. When finished, the depot will house a transportation museum highlighting the town’s history, space for a second tenant and a public restroom for the bikeped corridor.

While the intersection still retains the “depot” name associated with the railroad – which once took hundreds of spectators to the races at Rockingham Park – the rail line stopped carrying passengers in 1953 after more than 100 years of operation.

All that remains now are a few feet of partially buried trolley car tracks and rusted nails, but the depot intersection retains notoriety as one of the most highly trafficked roadways in town.

Supporters of Salem’s Bike-Ped Corridor believe – as do their counterparts in Windham – that the paved path along the railroad will eventually serve as a transportation conduit through the region, replacing the old railway while taking cars off of the road. To that end, the group has partnered with Windham and Derry rail trail advocates to apply for a state transportation enhancement grant that would fund a 10-mile path connecting the three towns and running right through the Windham and Salem depots.

“We’ll have a very nice transportation corridor tying two major park and ride locations at Exit 2 in Salem and Exit 5 in Derry, and a lot of people could commute short distances by bike,” said David Topham, spokesman for the Salem group. “If this was developed from Salem to Derry and then on to Manchester, this becomes a tourist-type destination and money comes into the state and the town. People will travel to ride a bicycle on a rail trail because they feel a lot safer there than on the road and with that comes money – they have to eat.”

Oddly enough, Topham said most of the opposition to the bike-ped corridor plan has come from “railroad buffs,” people who want to see the trains running from Lawrence to Manchester once again and are concerned the project could derail any attempts to bring the railroad back. He believes that the bikeway – which runs parallel to Interstate 93 – will preserve the once vital railroad bed for any future use.

“There are the railroad buffs out there who say the only use for an old rail corridor is to put trains on it again ... By using the corridor for bike-ped use, the corridor is being kept in (condition),” he said. “If trains came back, it is right there.”