#Headlight Bulb Replacement

[24hrmobiletyrerepairlondon]

Mobile technicians tap expansive supply chains so reliable matches fuel brightness continually. Contact 24hr Mobile Tyre Repair London for headlight bulb replacement service in London today! 

[chaoticeddie]

changed my headlights today, feeling super accomplished

[lettuce-gremlin]

Me after changing the turn signal bulbs in my car by myself and then just kinda brute forcing the whole headlight piece back into place after struggling to put it back for like 15 minutes

[mirainawen]

the guy at the auto part store: i HATE it when people put after market stuff on their cars, you'll have to replace the whole assembly for your headlight, see? it's like $200. or try to get a factory assembly from a junkyard and go back to that instead, then our regular $16 bulbs will fit. sorry. maybe call the manufacturer.

me, consulting the internet searches:

[sein-zum-tod]

Apparently they make it more difficult to change a light bulb on an Elantra than they do to steal one.

[asapautomobile25]

car light bulb replacement in san jose

Get brighter lights and reliable power with our professional car headlight bulb and alternator replacement services in San Jose, CA.

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[rbrt2orien]

100 - 277Vac, 29.4W, 700mA, 24-42V, [0-10V, TRI...], IP64 LED Driver

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Blind Offer 2

Warnings: this fic will include dark content such as noncon, manipulation, and possible untagged elements. My warnings are not exhaustive, enter at your own risk.

This is a dark!fic and explicit. 18+ only. Your media consumption is your own responsibility. Warnings have been given. DO NOT PROCEED if these matters upset you.

Summary: After a leak causes you to evacuate your apartment, your landlord offers a vacant unit that’s too good to be true. (short!plus!reader)

Character: Steve Rogers, additional characters to come

Note:  This is one of my Corrupt-A-Wish requests but I won’t reveal which one right away because it’ll be part of the plot!

As per usual, I humbly request your thoughts! Reblogs are always appreciated and welcomed, not only do I see them easier but it lets other people see my work. I will do my best to answer all I can. I’m trying to get better at keeping up so thanks everyone for staying with me <3

Your feedback will help in this and future works (and WiPs, I haven’t forgotten those!)

Love you like I love turning intended one shots into series. Take care. 💖

You come out of work exhausted. The back to school crowd is still in full effect and infringing on your stocking time. Rather than pop your earbud in and lose yourself in barcodes and inventory counts, you more often found yourself searching out a salesman or running to the back to grab a device yourself.

You yawn into the crook of your elbow, feet carrying you out of routine rather than any coherent thought. There’s a flash of headlights as you pass a car idling along the pick up area and you slow down as you squint at the tinted windshield. The interior bulb flicks on and Steve leans forward, giving you a look through the glass as if you should be expecting him.

You slow down and approach the driver’s side as he rolls down the window. You lean in and give a sheepish smile, “uh, I…”

“Didn’t text?” He finishes your sentence, “I figured you were busy.”

“Oh, well, you didn’t–”

“Have to come get you. Yeah, I figured you’d say that again. Really, it’s kind of selfish on my part. Thinking of you waiting in the dark alone, it’s kind of my fault you even have to so I can at least give you a lift.”

“That’s… nice of you but tomorrow, I can catch a bus.”

“If you insist,” he shrugs, “I won’t twist your arm with my kindness.”

You laugh softly, unsure of his humour. It’s more akin to passive aggression. As if even thinking of passing up his offer is an insult. Wouldn’t it be worse to use him for free rides? You’re already getting to stay in a property well above your lease value.

“You gonna get in?” He prompts.

“Yeah, sure, sorry, I–”

“Hey, thanks for the help on that Lenovo,” Remo calls as he walks out the front doors, shooting you a three finger wave, “not bad for a warehouse jockey.”

“No problem. Have a good night,” you wave back.

You skirt around the hood of the car and grab the door handle. It snaps back and you wait until the locks clack back loudly. You get in and gently shut the door. You unreel the seat belt as Steve adjusts his rearview.

“You got a lot of friends at work?” He asks as he shifts gear, resting his toe lightly on the gas.

“Eh, I guess,” you lean your arm on the door, “busy day. Did a lot of running around.”

“Huh, yeah, maybe I should stop in tomorrow. Need some stuff for a few units. Got a security cam I need to replace and– you got appliances, don’t you?” He rambles over the steering wheel.

“Yeah, uh, I think. Mostly to order,” you rest your cheek against your knuckles and watch how you pass in and out of the yellow cones cast by streetlights. “I guess you’re still looking for a new washer then?”

“Well, they don’t make the same model anymore. Space is pretty compact which means I need something with the same dimensions. I’m shopping around,” He taps his fingers on the wheel, “I’ll figure it out.” 

You nod and give a hum. No use worrying too much about it. You only rent the place, it’s really not your problem to think about the washer. He did say it already had issues before you.

“So, how do you like the place?” He asks abruptly.

“Huh, oh, yeah, it’s very nice. Big,” you answer nervously.

“Yeah, that one’ll go for a lot. A few showings but no bites yet. Probably won’t get anything until I can get you back to your place, heh,” he says the last part casually as if it isn’t directly aimed at you.

“Mmm, um, then I hope you find a washer soon,” you pull your arm away from the door and sit back in the seat. “I hate to be in the way.”

“In the way? I’m the landlord, I knew what I was getting into,” he assures you lightly, though it does little to assuage your doubts. “Oh, and since you didn’t really get a chance, I got a few groceries and left them at the place. Just to get you by.”

“You– Oh, gosh, how much do I owe you?”

“Consider us even. You’ve been pretty cooperative with all this back and forth, I’m the one who owes you.”

“Well, I don’t mind paying for my food–”

“Really, sweetheart, do you always react so adversely to kindness?”

“What? I’m not– no.”

“I’m being nice. I can tell you, there’s not a lot of landlords out there like me. I actually enjoy helping my tenants…” he turns onto a dark street and you shiver. You’ve never been down this way but you don’t live on this side of town. “I always said, whatever you need, just ask.”

“Sure, um, thanks,” you murmur.

He turns back onto a lit avenue as a glint of light flickers over him and draws your eyes. You catch him peeking at you, his blue eye reflecting the flash before he can look back at the road ahead. You shiver and cross your arms. It didn’t seem like he was looking at your face.

“Fresh sheets on the bed too. Hope you don’t mind, I did a once over when you were gone. Just to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Quick vacuum and all that.”

“It’s your place,” you say, “I’ll be sure to leave it how I found it.”

He inhales, deep enough for you to hear, “I know. You’re not a troublemaker, are you?”

You swallow and furrow your brow at the dashboard. Again, it’s not just his words but his vague tone. You don’t understand the question.

“Good girl like you always pays her rent on time,” he praises, “I can tell you, that’s not always the case.”

You let out a breath, “oh, aha, yeah, well, scheduled payments… technology, right?”

“Mhmm,” he sucks his teeth and lets his arm rest on the console between the seats, ”it’s so easy to be lazy these days.”

🖤

Steve walks you up to the front door. Just in case you can’t get the code right, he claims. You get it on the first try and thank him. Again. He lingers, as if reluctant to leave you, as if he’s expecting to come inside with you. Almost as if you should invite him in.

You say good night and lock the door behind you. You take your time untying your black sneakers and hang your hoodie on the coat rack. When you dare to peek out the window, he’s only just striding down the path back to his car.

It’s slightly creepy but then you feel guilty, thinking maybe you were being rude not asking him in for a tea or something. You don’t know. This whole situation is awkward as hell.

You wander into the kitchen, your stomach growling from the measly microwave dinner you ate on your break. Steve’s ‘small shop’ is much more generous than you expect. Overdoing it seems to be a trait of his.

You read the side of the organic milk in the curved bottle. You know that it costs three times as much as your usual carton of skim. And the greek yogurt, definitely expensive. All brand names, none of the generic discount bin goodies you thrive on.

You let the fridge close as you take out the boxed butternut squash soup. Fancy, you think as you peruse the label. Gourmet, so it claims. You put some in a small pot and heat it up on the gas burner. As you do, you thumb through your phone, pacing around between stirring the thick orange puree.

You eat rich soup with a brioche bun from the market bag. You’re thankful now Steve didn’t ask for compensation, you’re not sure you could foot that bill. And to think, after him praising your timely payments, you would default on a grocery receipt.

You shut off the lights downstairs and flip on the sconce above the staircase and follow it up to the second floor. You come down the hall with a yawn, the bedroom door open and waiting for you. Your duffel is on the dresser where you left it.

You sift around for a loose tee shirt to sleep in and pull out your toiletry bag. You go into the bathroom and change before unzipping the pouch. You take out your cleanser and wash your face over the sink. You pause as you drop the bottle through the open mouth of the blush coloured bag, a fuchsia shape poking out from under your mouthwash.

You reach in and retrieve your bullet vibrator. What the hell? You definitely don’t remember packing that in your hasty evacuation. Besides, why would you put it in there? You shake your head and drop it back to the bottom. 

You pat your face dry and take out your tweezers, cleaning up your brows and a few vagrant hairs along your chin. You put them away then ply on your night cream, making a face at yourself as you brush your teeth. You flip the switch off and use the light on your phone to find your way to bed. 

You lay awake for almost an hour. You’ve never been good at sleeping in strange places. The house feels so empty it’s eerie. Your ears are pricked for any noise but there isn’t much. The walls are so thick, you don’t even hear the rustling of the tree that casts a shadow through the window or the chirp of crickets. Despite its luxury, the house is desolate.

Your eyelids start to itch and you feel your muscles ease. You start to drift down, a slow swirling descent that tingles in your sockets. That shell starts to encase you, little by little, paralysing you as it drags you down.

BANG!

It isn’t loud but sudden. The dull noise jars you up, chasing away the advance of your fatigue. You look around, heart beating wildly, searching for the source. It sounded close but you can’t be sure. It could’ve been all in your mind as you tiptoed the threshold of your unconscious.

You bounce to the edge of the bed and stand, wobbling through the dark until you find the switch by the door. The light shines out around you as you stop in the doorway, glancing trepidatiously towards the stairs. You near the top and turn on the next light, a cautious progress through the spacious house.

You go down each step, one at a time, and when you get to the bottom, you illuminate the entryway too, the front room, and finally the kitchen. There’s nothing there. You didn’t really expect to find anything. The noise felt much closer to the bedroom.

You return to the second floor, shutting off the lights along the way, and you peer down the hallway. You didn’t check up here. You pad along the soft runner rug and peek into the bathroom before you approach the closed door of the study.

You touch the handle and a zing of fear courses through you. You should just go back to bed. You don’t need to know.

You turn it and inch inside, snaking your other hand in to flick on the lights. The same. Nothing there. You shut the door and proceed to the second bedroom, the door is slightly ajar so you kick it open with your foot and let the light in the hallway pour in. Empty.

You’re imagining things. It’s being in this strange house. Whenever you stayed the night at your grandmother’s it was the same thing. If you weren’t awake, waiting for the creaks of the house to prove something sinister, you were trapped in shallow night terrors that felt too real.

You return to the bedroom. You don’t turn off the light right away. You grab your charger and plug in your phone, opening up the white noise app you never used. You scroll through the choices with their dreamy names; serenity, fantasy, rejuvenation…

Your thumb hovers over the start button as you hear something else. Muffled and hollow. You frown, you can’t tell if it’s real or your mind playing tricks. There’s such a surreal distant effect to the scream that you can’t be sure it’s not some stray cat yowling in the street. The silence that ensues feeds your doubt. You’re looking for peculiarities, that’s all.

You press play on the soothing wishing noises and set your phone on the night table. You get up to shut off the lights and quickly nestle into bed, pulling a pillow over your head to block out the room. You just need to make it through the first night.

🖤

The next day, you leave earlier than usual. The change in your bus route and prospect of a narrow transfer from one bus to the next, has you anxious. Before you leave, you double check that you have your bus pass and some spare change just in case. You hook your bag around your shoulder, the security system announcing your exit; ‘front door open’.

You pull the door shut and hit the lock icon on the pad. You test the handle to make sure it’s closed and for a moment, you’re disoriented as you hear the door unlock but it doesn’t budge. You frown and look up as a shadow emerges from the unit next to yours. It wasn’t your door.

A man with long brown hair poking out from under a ball cap turns to punch in his code before locking it. The pad flashes red confirming the door is secured. He scowls at the handle as he drops his arm straight, his hand balling to a fist as he mutters.

“Morning,” you greet, the typical squeaky greeting you give to your neighbours.

He winces and turns as he looks up at you. You must’ve surprised him. You give an apologetic wave and tight-lipped smile. His blue eyes shock you, bold but bright in his chiseled face. He tilts his head slightly before he spins without response and stalks away. You watch his broad shoulders as he marches across the street without looking.

Not the friendliest of neighbours but the first one you’ve encountered. It’s a little less offputting knowing you’re not the only one around. You let out a long breath and make your way down the paved pathway to the sidewalk. You peek back at the unit next door. The curtains are drawn and the place looks dark even at the peak of day.

You shrug it off. You should only be there for a couple more days. That’s it. That’s all you have to get through.

[aliaology]

SOMETHING IN THE ORANGE

summary: you're officially done with quinn after your last fight, and quinn can't help but regret what he did.

pairings: quinn hughes x fem!reader

warnings: angst bc ive been angsty recently

quinn sat on a lawn chair, hair blowing in the wind as he was on the porch. the brunette couldn't help but think, think, think. think about you, the fight, you leaving. the way you packed your stuff up, the way you couldn't yell back without tears brimming the corner of your eyes. the way your voice trembled every time you talked.

he licked his lips, desperate to feel the dryness leave and be replaced with a temporary relief. the sun was setting, making the sky go from a burning orange and mix into a dark blue. the lights that littered the parking lot turned on.

quinn knew it was over. you weren't coming home. you weren't coming back to him. you wouldn't knock on his door the next day to talk about your fight. you wouldn't hug him and have your head in the crook of his neck. no, you wouldn't be coming back at all.

he shifted slightly, the wooden boards creaking under him. the creaked just like they always did when you two would come out here at night and dance to the soft music you'd play. the only light being the bulb that was right next to the door. you didn't care if you woke your neighbors under you. you two were having your moment.

you wouldn't be having the moment anymore.

quinn didn't know why he couldn't man up and go to your house. it had been three days, why couldn't he? maybe deep down its because he knew no matter what, he would be leaving without you.

quinn quickly sat up as soon as he saw your headlights pull into the parking lot. scratch everything he said, you were coming home.

it didn't take long for him to get to his door and wait for you to knock on it. as soon as you did, he opened it. "y/n" he breathed out.

"im just here to grab a few of my remaining things," you told him. disappointment flashed across his face.

he nodded and stepped aside, allowing you in. he silently prayed you weren't taking any of your perfumes or any of your shampoo. he hated to admit it but he used them every night to lull him to sleep.

"i miss you." he spoke quietly.

you paused, looking down slightly as you walked into your old shared room. you didn't say it back. he officially knew it was done. you two were no more.

but that hurt. you were everything to him. you were all he was. but he was just a man to you now. he used to be your everything and now he isn't.

you grabbed your remaining clothes after you realized how your perfume filled the room. the scent was fresh, newly sprayed. you'd let him have it. you'd let him run out of it. and you'd let him have no more. he wouldn't buy a new one because it didn't come from you.

quinn didn't make a sound after you left. he locked his door and went back onto his porch. he watched you go to your car, start it and start to drive off.

please turn those headlights around.

I LOVE ANGST.

[bihet-dragonize]

Hey so I need to replace one of my headlight bulbs, pay rent, pay my internet bill and make my next payment on the controller I bought. I can cover rent and internet, but I need some help with the bulb and the Klarna payment. If you have the funds, I'd appreciate some help. If not, please reblog.

Rude comments earn you a block and no acknowledgement. Behave or be cast into a void!

Paypal: @dragonize21

Venmo: @dragonize12

[sirfrogsworth]

LED headlights should actually be great and it is weird how poorly they are engineered into a lot of cars.

I see this complaint a lot online. And while we don't have a lot of newer cars around my neighborhood, I have encountered a few of these poorly designed headlights since I started driving again.

It doesn't make any sense. LED lighting gives you almost limitless control over how the lights behave. You can make them any intensity, any color temperature, and you can focus them however you like.

In theory, engineers should be able to make them less annoying than traditional lights.

My best guess is they are trying to use traditional manufacturing methods and parts and just shoving an LED into the process rather than starting from scratch.

And I do know that people are replacing their traditional lights with aftermarket LEDs and that is a square peg in a round hole situation. It is not easy to make an LED behave exactly like a filament bulb did.

I'm hoping this issue is getting better on newer cars. I honestly don't know since I don't really have a reason to keep up with current designs.

That said, I just bought two new outdoor lights and they are 8800 lumens and I am excited to see if they illuminate more of my 1 acre property. And maybe lamppost will join in the fun if he feels up to it.

I think I am going to give the inconsistent lamppost an official name. Ol' Lampy?

[trainsinanime]

tell me about french train headlights

They're all the same! Or at least they were, from the mid-1950s to about the early 1990s. They all look like this:

Okay, some context for why I find this interesting. Suppose you see a picture of a train, especially one made in the second half of the 20th century, and you want to know where the train is from. The key trick to telling this at a glance is having a bit of autism, but more specifically, the headlights.

In Europe, all major and many minor countries used to have their own government-owned railroad and their own train-building industry, which would build trains to the specifications of their railroad company. There has always been some exporting going on, but for the most part, the trains you'd find in Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria and so on would be all completely different. This has changed drastically over the past 20ish years.

One thing about this old model is that railroad companies would standardise certain parts within their fleets, especially small parts that need servicing and replacing every now and then. It saves on how many different types of spare parts you need to have.

Headlights are the most notable among these by far: Every train needs to have some of them. All trains have basically the same requirements for their headlights, no matter how fast or slow or whatever they are. Before LEDs, you needed to service the headlights regularly to replace the light bulbs. Also they are glass parts at the front of a fast moving vehicle, they can get damaged, so spare parts logistics are an issue. And most importantly, we as railfans can easily see them. So you get something like this:

As a result, basically all railroad companies in post-war Europe standardised their head- and taillights for all or most of their trains. And all of them had completely different ideas. Fundamentally, all of them agreed that you need white headlights and red taillights, and since modern trains are easily reversible, you put both of them next to each other.

But do you make the white and red lights the same size (West Germany, Netherlands) or different sizes (Austria, East Germany)? Are they separate things, or do you combine them into one assembly (UK, Switzerland)? Do you make them anything approaching normal sized or gigantic (Poland)? Maybe I'll do an overview post over these later, but I don't have enough pictures in my library right now and I'd have to scour Wikipedia for them later.

The French headlight design shown here is in many ways just one of many, but also interesting in its own right: The actual lenses for red and white are the same size, but the white headlight gets this huge lens assembly that makes it look much more prominent. You can clearly see that different French designers had very different ideas about whether you align the center-lines (most of them), or the bottom of the lens assembly. Why is the headlight lens so big, and what are the metal tabs around the bottom half of the circle? I have no clue. My guess is to put some coloured glass panes in, but I have no idea why you'd need that. Also, note that the red taillight classically has a fresnel lens, that's unique as far as I can tell.

I've taken all these pictures in the Cité du Train, the big central French railroad museum in Mulhouse. (That's why I was posting about traveling to Basel early this weekend. Mulhouse is actually really close to Basel, and going via Switzerland is the most practical—and most scenic—route for me) The oldest locomotive I could find with these headlights was CC-7107:

During high speed trails in the early 1950s, this locomotive reached a speed of 326 km/h (203 mph). That made it only second best behind the other locomotive at the trials, BB-9004:

This one reached 331 km/h (206 mph), a world record that would not be beaten for a long time. The difference was nothing to do with technical performance. Instead, both locomotives melted their pantograph, the part on top that touches the overhead line to get power, at around 320 km/h (200 mph). BB-9004 had a second one that it could lift up to continue accelerating, while CC-7107 only had the one. For a long time, SNCF pretended that both locomotives had reached 331 km/h, to protect the reputation of both manufacturers.

What's notable for our purposes is that BB-9004 has different headlights. As far as I can tell, these seem to be an earlier standard design, also found e.g. on the CC-65001 diesel locomotive:

And even on steam locomotives, like this class 141 R:

So CC-7107 lost on the high speed world record, but it was the way of the future when it came to headlights. These headlights then started cropping up everywhere. From the detail pictures I've shown you above, we have e.g. Le Petit Gris (the small grey one, an EMU for suburban services in Paris):

A CC-6500, dressed up with a nameplate for the express train it was hauling. Fun fact: One locomotive of this type (not this one) was used in the US for a while, as Amtrak was trying out new electric locomotives to use. They weren't happy with it and bought a Swedish one instead, mostly because this locomotive's suspension did not work well with the American track quality.

A Z 2200, a diesel railcar for rural lines designed to be cheap first, second and third.

A BB-26000, which feels altogether way to new to be in this museum.

It's from the 1980s, so I guess the first are reaching retirement age. But at the same time: The train I took from Basel to Mulhouse was still pulled by one of these BB-26000.

Other favourites include the BB-25600 with its rare diagonal light arrangement:

Or the really terribly lit gas turbine train RTG, which puts the headlight on stalks:

Fun fact: Amtrak did end up buying a few these. They didn't use the same white headlights (although they did use the same stalks), but they did use the same fresnel lens red taillights.

And the headlights went all the way up to the top. To the TGV. Only these headlights aren't very aerodynamic, so for their high-speed train, SNCF decided to cover them up.

As far as I can tell, SNCF used these headlights in the TGVs up to the Réseau series, including the Eurostar. That meant that they're also found, though behind faded glass, on the TGV Atlantique 325 in the outdoor area. Number 325 is notable because it was involved in another high speed trial, and reached 515.3 km/h (320.3 mph) on May 18th, 1990.

That was a world record, of course; in fact only the French ever exceeded 500 km/h on conventional railroads. So these headlights did get their world record after all. They didn't get to keep it for long, though. In 2007, a newer TGV reached 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph). That one is still in service, though, and it was equipped with newer LED headlights. I think it's highly unlikely that this record will be broken anytime soon, but if anyone does, I wouldn't be surprised if it were the French again, they like that sort of stuff.

Some final odds an ends with the headlights, though: Here's CC-40101, which isn't actually relevant, I just like the way it looks.

Designed for service in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, with four different voltages and four different train control systems, and that with mid-1960s technology. It wasn't quite as successful as hoped, and in service it only ever reached Belgium, but still, look at that design. The front is supposed to evoke an athlete, a sprinter about to start, but this type of design has instead become known as "Nez cassé", broken nose.

BB-9291 shows a rare early version without red tail lights at all. Someone thought they were saving money.

This small work train has a free-standing version of the headlight, which shows us how deep it really is. Apparently, the French headlight is actually not that deep, and isn't that a nice summary for this post?

And a personal favourite of mine, I even bought a T-Shirt with it on it, the Z 600:

The design, in particular the side windows (recessed instead of flush, no outside visible gasket) says Swiss, the headlight and SNCF logo says French, it's narrow gauge and it has a third rail to provide power. Just all around a weird little train, for the weird little line known as the Mont-Blanc Express from France via Switzerland to the bottom of the Mont-Blanc mountain. The train was built in Switzerland, experts of building small trains for mountains, but for the French part of that rail line, so it got French headlights.

Headlights with exporting is a fun topic in its own right. Do you keep the headlights from the country of origin, or demand your own? You will find both approaches. Both Portugal and the Netherlands bought very similar electric locomotives from France. Portugal has French headlights, the Netherlands insisted on (less interesting) dutch ones.

These days, of course, you will still find these headlights, but they're getting rarer. They stopped being used in new trains around the mid-1990s. What's more, the ones you do find, like on this MI-84 in Paris, probably don't have the fresnel lens taillight anymore. Instead, those were replaced with LEDs.

LED lights for railroads make a lot of sense. They last forever and require less power. And since most railroads have standardised their head- and taillights, you just need to design one replacement light for most of France, and then keep building that one until SNCF stops giving you money.

(Since we're showing a picture from Paris, a quick note: These headlights were never used on passenger-carrying trains for the Paris metro. However, some work trains do have them.)

These days, standard headlights are completely gone. LEDs don't need a lot of replacing, and they give you much more freedom to do things like shapes and patterns and designs. Also, we don't have the "one country, one railroad, one rail industry" pattern anymore. Instead now we have multi-national rail conglomerates. Alstom is technically French, but arguably just as much German, ever since they bought Bombardier's rail division, nominally Canadian. Stadler is Swiss, except for the stuff they build in Germany or Poland or Belarus or Hungary or…, and some of their most interesting products right now are built and designed in Spain.

The end result of that is this:

That's a company I saw at a trade fair (Innotrans, Berlin, 2022) that makes LED train headlights, and specifically they make… all of them? Okay, I'm exaggerating, but this is a great picture to drive a European rail fan insane as they try to assign the different headlights to different trains. You get Stuttgart trams, German (and Turkish) high speed trains, lots and lots of Swiss stuff. Nothing specifically French that I could tell, but at least the German high speed train regularly travels to Paris.

The standard headlights, or their LED variants, were still in use for work trains until fairly recently. There are not that many companies that make rail grinders or ballast tampers, and those tend to just use whatever headlight their customer tells them to. But these days they go for shaped LED headlights as well, because they're just better, and because thanks to European standardisation, a headlight approved in one country can (generally) be used in all European countries.

(All pictures © me, feel free to use them under CC-BY-SA 3.0 DE if you want)

[cannibalcaprine]

Workers in Sweden Will Expand Strike Against Tesla

Swedish unions are joining in blockades and targeted strikes against the U.S. automaker over its refusal to sign a collective bargaining agreement with its mechanics.

By Melissa Eddy and Christina Anderson

Unions across Sweden said on Tuesday that they would support an effort to pressure Tesla to sign a collective bargaining agreement with its 120 mechanics, joining a campaign to defend a model of organized labor that many Swedes say is essential to the country’s economic success and stability.

Dockworkers said they would expand their blockade of the automaker’s shipment to all ports in Sweden next week, after launching the action at four key locations. The electricians’ union said its members would stop servicing Tesla charging stations when they needed a repair, and maintenance workers said they wouldn’t clean Tesla facilities.

On Monday, the IF Metall trade union, which represents 300,000 workers across the country including the Tesla mechanics, said its talks with company representatives had ended without resolution. The union began the strike action at Tesla’s 12 service centers on Oct. 27.

Tesla, which entered Sweden in 2013, did not respond to requests for comment. The company told Sweden’s TT News Agency that it followed Swedish labor market rules but had chosen not to sign a collective agreement.

“It is unfortunate that IF Metall has taken these measures,” Tesla told TT in an emailed statement. “We already offer equivalent or better agreements than those covered by collective bargaining and find no reason to sign any other agreement.”

Tesla also said it was committed to “remaining available to our customers” during the strike.

That appeared to be the case on Tuesday at a Tesla facility in Segeltorp, a suburb of Stockholm, where customers were dropping off and picking up their cars and mechanics were seen coming and going. They declined to speak with a reporter.

IF Metall has said it believes that Tesla has hired outside workers to replace striking employees, but this could not be independently confirmed. “We know that Tesla has people who are not part of the ordinary work force working in some locations,” said Jesper Pettersson, the union’s spokesman.

Some Tesla owners arriving to have their cars serviced appeared to be nonplused by the labor actions.

“It should be up to the company” whether it signs a collective bargaining agreement, said Karin Bjarle, 42, an e-commerce entrepreneur who had the bulbs in her headlight replaced.

The unions supporting IF Metall’s cause said they were trying not only to improve working conditions for mechanics employed by Tesla but to defend Sweden’s longstanding system of organized labor, in which employers and employees work together to reach consensus on wages, benefits and working hours. Such agreements cover about 90 percent of workers in Sweden.

“If we let this go, it puts a crack in the whole system,” said Tommy Wreeth, head of the Swedish Transport Workers’ Union, who went to Sodertalje Harbor, south of Stockholm, to rally union members around the blockade against Tesla.

“This isn’t just about the metalworkers’ and transport workers’ unions,” he said. “This is important because the whole Swedish model is at stake.”

The transport union said last week that it would refuse to unload any Teslas arriving by ship to four large Swedish ports beginning Tuesday. After it learned that Tesla was rerouting shipments to other ports, the union said, it expanded its job action to block such shipments to all Swedish ports starting Nov. 17 unless an agreement is reached.

On Tuesday it was unclear if any shipments of Teslas were scheduled to arrive or were turned away at the ports. Mans Frostell, chief executive of Sodertalje Port, said Sodertalje received an average of 1,200 cars a week; there were no Tesla cars in this week’s shipment.

Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, has repeatedly pushed back against calls to unionize by his 127,000 employees around the world. But IF Metall and its supporters argue that Tesla’s employees lack the annual wage increases, insurance and pension coverage, and other benefits they would receive if they were under an industrywide collective agreement.

“Tesla must accept the rules of the Swedish labor market, and in Sweden we use collective agreements,” said Mikael Pettersson, head of negotiations at Elektrikerna, the electricians’ union.

Elektrikerna said its members would not provide any servicing or repairs at Tesla’s 213 charging stations across Sweden starting Nov. 17. “If something breaks, no one will fix it,” the union said in a statement.

Cleaning staff at Tesla’s facilities in the Stockholm area and one in Umea in northern Sweden will also start staying home from their jobs on that date, the Swedish Building Maintenance Workers’ Union said.

Not only unions are joining in the action. Taxi Stockholm, which advertises its adherence to the collective agreement system, said it would cease all new orders of Teslas for its fleet.

“It’s good they’re taking these actions,” said Jesper Nordgaard, 29, a member of the transport union who works at the port of Sodertalje. “My question is why didn’t they do it sooner?”

Melissa Eddy is a correspondent based in Berlin who covers German politics, social issues and culture. She came to Germany as a Fulbright scholar in 1996, and previously worked for The Associated Press in Frankfurt, Vienna and the Balkans. More about Melissa Eddy

[luanneclatterbuck]

BOOM. I’d never changed a headlight bulb before. Watched one video of some guy kind of showing what to do but not actually doing it. Bought the right replacements. Installed them. They work.

[mckitterick]

Changing headlight bulbs on a 2011-2019 Jaguar XJ

Jaguars have a reputation (from the bad old days) of being unreliable and difficult to repair. I'm here to tell you that conventional wisdom is wrong about the first part. But there's no reason it should be this difficult to change a lightbulb.

I mean, you have to completely remove the front fascia and bumper, and unfasten the wheelwell linings, to reach the bolts that hold the headlight assembly in place (circled in this photo after removal). And there's no way to access the sealed box where the headlight lives without removing the entire assembly.

But gosh did this need replacing - check out the difference between burned-out and new bulb.

The most challenging part is reaching behind the loosened wheelwell cover (with the grille, behind the headlight assembly power-supply) to remove some impossible-to-reach bolts without removing strips of skin (gloves are too bulky for the fiddly task).

Thar she blows: Success!

As big a job as this appears, the project only took about three hours (including studying a couple of how-to YouTube videos). Even so, that's about two and a half hours longer than it should take to change a lightbulb.

But it's worth it!

Not only is this the most beautiful and well-engineered vehicle I've ever driven, and an indescribable pleasure to be wrapped inside (can you say heated and cooled massaging seats and gorgeous burlwood all around?), its lightweight all-aluminum construction, 8-speed transmission, and direct-injection V-6 make it the most fuel-efficient, as well.

This is going to be our wedding and honeymoon trip carriage!

Perhaps the best part is that we got this delightful machine (used) for less than the original buyer paid in taxes. Ten years of depreciation and an unflattering reliability history from prior generations mean you can pick up one of these kitties for about the price of a Toyota of comparable age.

Would I recommend other non-rich folks get a modern Jaguar? Dealer prices for parts and labor make these best for do-it-yourselfers. I mean, three hours to change a lightbulb, amirite?

But if you're comfortable working on your own vehicle and have the tools to do the task (it requires some funky driver heads and a bendy ratchet), wholeheartedly yes! Replacement parts are no more expensive than for any other car if you order from Rock Auto or such.

Rich people shouldn't have all the fun.

[burningspy]

They replaced all of the fluorescent lights at my office with LED bulbs today.

It is now so bright in there, that I cannot see!

It was bad enough being blinded by idiots in traffic with their ultra-bright LED headlights on my way to work every morning. Now, I also get to be blinded just by turning on the lights in my office.

It is literally so bright in my office, that my once vivid and colorful computer monitors now look dim and washed out. I actually spent the last two hours of my workday with the lights in my office turned off just so I could easily see and read the monthly accounting reports I was trying to fill out.

I don't know exactly whose idea it was to make this change, but I do know that I absolutely hate that person, whoever they may be!