For Victims, a Deadly Last Ride

One was a train lover whose regular seat on the Metrolink was up front, where he could see the engineer at work. Another was a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy who specialized in gangs and coached high school football. A third was a clerk-typist with the Los Angeles Fire Department. A fourth was a maintenance worker at the county jail. A fifth was planning to retire in July.

They were among those killed when a Metrolink train slammed into the SUV that had been left on the tracks at a Glendale crossing Wednesday morning, then collided with two other trains.

The victims' common bond was that they needed to get someplace from locations to the north and west of Los Angeles.

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Train Buff Rode in Front

Scott McKeown, 42, lived in Moorpark in Ventura County with his family and commuted each day to Pasadena City Hall, where he was in charge of the city's phone, radio and sound systems.

He had fallen for trains when he was a boy and his family had come West from Chicago in one. He and his best friend, Joe Wilke, had made a model of the train line that included the track on which he was killed.

Wilke said that on days off, he and McKeown would take their families to Los Angeles by train for lunch, then return home in the afternoon.

McKeown had been sitting in his usual spot in the first car, directly behind a window where he could watch the engineer operate the controls, a friend told Wilke.

"For those of us who love trains, that's where you sit," Wilke said. "I'd like to think that Scott was having a good time."

McKeown and his wife, Susan, moved to Moorpark four years ago because they wanted a family-friendly environment for daughter Ashley, 8, and son Brice, 5, said David Doan, his brother-in-law.

Doan also talked of McKeown's passion for trains.

"He'd talk to the conductor, the engineers, the ticket man -- anyone who shared his love of trains," he said.

McKeown was a member of the Glendale Model Railroad Club for 20 years, friends said. He helped build and maintain the club's replica of the Southern Pacific Railroad, now Union Pacific.

"Scotty's been coming in here since he was a kid," said Fred Hill, the 62-year-old owner of the Original Whistle Stop train store in Pasadena. "He loved commuting on that train. He was a train nut."

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Deputy Coached High School Football