{"id":101,"date":"2026-06-28T19:57:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T19:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peremarquetterailway.com\/?p=101"},"modified":"2026-06-29T03:37:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T03:37:19","slug":"three-years-and-counting-lcc-as-a-counter-to-technical-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peremarquetterailway.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/28\/three-years-and-counting-lcc-as-a-counter-to-technical-debt\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Years and Counting; LCC as a Counter to Technical Debt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, as of this week I have been job-hunting for three years since being laid off. I’ve kept at it, but ageism is rampant in technology. Anyone who didn’t want a 57 year-old with tech skills back then sure as hell doesn’t want a 60 year-old with tech skills now. I’m not really free to move out of SE Michigan for the fourteen or so more years I’d like to continue working, so I figure I’ll just have to take on some other kind of work.<\/p>\n

END OF RANT<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I have been having a great time this week with LCC since I dug out my TCS LT-50 command station and started playing with it. I definitely have one from the first batch, serial number 13(!). Before I started anything, though, I updated my copy of JMRI to be current with the most recent test release. I was nine revisions behind on my laptop.<\/p>\n

I’m thinking that the TCS LT-50<\/a> will be all the command station I need for a four-person layout. Keeping its tethered throttle plugged in (to act as a command station), with the three others I already have, I’m really only one radio throttle short. I’d love to be able to entertain a 12-person session, but cannot figure out how I’d fit that many people plus a layout into my 20 by 25 foot space.<\/p>\n

By doing all of my planning based on an LCC system, I skip the proprietary systems that Digitrax and NCE have for their own buss networks; I’m basically not designing in 30 years of technical debt by instead designing around an open standard supported by multiple vendors.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I set up a temporary installation on the floor and updated the TCS LT-50 from the version 1.0 software it was running to the current version, 2.2.1, on the TCS web site. That was quick and easy, so I hooked it up to a Logic Rail Technologies LCC Fast-clock. The LT-50 does not have a built-in fast clock, but the Logic Rail Technologies unit gives me a digital display, plus can store programmable events that it can send across the CANBus network of CAT5 cable that connects the components. It doesn’t do much yet, but I have plans. I’d like to have signaling, and the Pere Marquette\u00a0 used semaphores in my era.<\/p>\n

When I have time again, I will pull out the LT-50, the LCC Fast-clock, a wi-fi base station and a few other pieces I have acquired over the years and test them out a bit more. Then the fun really begins!<\/p>\n

-fm<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, as of this week I have been job-hunting for three years since being laid off. I’ve kept at it, but ageism is rampant in technology. Anyone who didn’t want a 57 year-old with tech skills back then sure as hell doesn’t want a 60 year-old with tech skills now. I’m not really free to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peremarquetterailway.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peremarquetterailway.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peremarquetterailway.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peremarquetterailway.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peremarquetterailway.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/peremarquetterailway.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104,"href":"https:\/\/peremarquetterailway.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions\/104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peremarquetterailway.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peremarquetterailway.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peremarquetterailway.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}