Watching videos of the LAJ on YouTube I’ve noticed that one of the favorite shooting locations for rail fans is the South Soto Street crossing.  Here they catch trains leaving the team track and heading back to the yard.  Looming in the background of many of the shots is the Crystal Promotions structure.  It shows up so often it almost becomes iconic.  I thought it would fun to find a way to photograph the structure on my layout.

I mocked up a small extension shelf at the end of the bench work and clamped it to the fascia.  Next I made flat of the Crystal Promotions structure and laid it in place.  It was a really, really tight fit but I was able to shoehorn my iPhone into position to get the shot.  Some photo shopping with Helicon Focus, Knockout 2, and Adobe Elements and I was able to get the image at the top of the post.  I’ve uploaded a larger, higher resolution image on my Flickr account HERE.

Click HERE to see a video of the prototype at the Soto Street crossing (1:37 mark).