Eagle project honors grandpa

William Maier completes ‘train garden’

By Mark Reynolds
Posted 1/6/21

When it came time for William Maier to decide what he wanted to do for his Eagle Scout project, he knew he had to find a way to honor his late grandfather’s love of trains and incorporate his …

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Eagle project honors grandpa

William Maier completes ‘train garden’

Posted

When it came time for William Maier to decide what he wanted to do for his Eagle Scout project, he knew he had to find a way to honor his late grandfather’s love of trains and incorporate his collection of railroad artifacts. A Train Park was the ideal answer.

When scout Maier was a young boy he would visit his grandfather, Frank Maier, on a weekly basis after school and the first thing out of his mouth would be, can we run the trains? In an upstairs room of the house his grandfather set up a giant set of tracks and model trains that the two would play with for hours.

“It was very awesome; the walls floor to ceiling had shelves of model trains,” he said. “It was a big hobby of his.”

To earn the rank of Eagle Scout, Maier created a small pocket park just off the rail trail near the Highland Rotary’s Centennial Garden and aptly named it the Frank Maier Train Park.

William got a few train artifacts from his grandmother Phyllis, such as switch stands, maintenance and whistle flags, a re-railer and he installed two traditional black and white X railroad crossing signs. He safely secured all of the railroad gear on simulated wood “railroad ties” so they would not, as he said, “one day walk away.”

William said over the years his grandfather collected the train artifacts by scouting out various locations where old parts were torn out that no one wanted and were earmarked for the dump. When William’s father Robert was a boy he often accompanied him on these adventures.

William chose the location because of its proximity to Commercial Avenue and a nearby parking area that would provide easy access to the train park.

“It is also a more well-traveled part of the rail trail and a lot more people will see it now,” he said.

Between cub scouts and the boy scouts William has been in scouting for the last 8 years.

“I just finalized the required paperwork for sending it into counsel for them to approve it and for me to be an Eagle Scout,” he said. “I’m technically not done yet but I will be in the next two to three days.”

William has to go through a Board of Review process that looks at everything he has done as a scout.

“Then there is a Court of Honor, which is the last big award ceremony for me, specifically, making me an Eagle Scout,” he said, adding that they are looking to hold this outside in the spring due to covid-19.

William said it is very rewarding to reach this stage in the process.
“I will admit that a few months ago I was having doubts that I would be able to do this but I got it together and I worked really hard and I was very glad that I was able to get this done on time,” he said.

William turns 18 on January 12 and has successfully met the deadline to complete his project in order to attain the rank of Eagle Scout.

William said he found being a boy scout very rewarding.

“Over the years just all the experiences that I’ve been able to be a part of, all the new people that I’ve met, all these skills that I have developed through scouting, all culminate into this right now and it feels awesome,” he said. “Words can’t explain how proud I am of myself and how excited I am for this to all wrap up.”

William said his father Robert is also an Eagle Scout.

“This has been something he’s been pushing me to do for years and finally getting it done I’m sure makes him very proud of me as well,” William said.