Yes they are , so if you connect the wrong way the LED won't work.
50/50 chance you do it right.
You won't distroy the LED because it is a diode  and works only one way.

If you use an aftermarket decoder be shure there is a resistor in the + line.
Take a 560 Ohm resistor (green, blue , brown).
If you think the light is to bright a 1K resistor also works fine (brown, black, red).

Ton

yep that is the way to do it.
Full size figures won't fitt anyway.

Ton

Must be the one of the two connectors or the pcb they are soldered to.
These connectors are not made to be disconnected every time.
Something will break.
So next time take it out of the box , connect the tender to the locomotive and leave it there.

Ton

I can't remember ever seeing a lightbulp in a 2-8-0.
It always came with LED's
A LED is something completely different than a lightbulp.
12V will absolutely distroy a LED.
A common LED uses 20 mili amps current.
A led also has polarity  +/-

The lens of the housing should slide out but sometimes it is glued in place.

Ton

Happy new year from the Netherlands.

Ton

My experience with the porter is that it sounded like a talking buggy.
I removed the soundcard and build it into a 4-4-0 American with a real speaker and it sounds fine.
Conclusion; it's the sounder that is the problem.

Ton

Hi Peter
if i'm not mistaken is the big connector for the motor and the lighting.
The small one is for the track pickup.
My experience with the connectors is that the part on the pcb underneath the cab is prown to breaking of from the copper leads on the pcb.
If you have no experience with soldering small parts don't even think about fixing it yourself.

Ton

Above adress 99 you come into the extended adress relm.
You will have to change CV 29 to enable the extended adress and change the numbers in CV 17 and 18.
You can find extended adress calculators on the net.

Ton

or, as i do, make a testtrack.

Ton

My collection is also satturated.
Another two reasons are the price of the models and the shippingcosts to Europe.
Those prices have rissen exponentailly after i started in 2007.

Ton

When using a DCC system , the lighting is constant.
I yanked all the lightbulps out and replaced them with LED's.
Don't forget the resistor of about 680 -1000 Ohms per LED.
Otherwise you distroy the LED's.

Ton

I use tsunami tsu1000 light steam decoders in all my connies.
As speaker i use speakers from old laptops.
8 Ohm and free.

Ton

I had a burned out motor on one of my 2-4-4-2's.
Bachmann sent me a complete chassis due to lack of parts in their inventory.
The construction of the 2-6-6-2 and the 2-4-4-2 are the same.

Ton

Most of the bachmann tenders have a hole in the bottom chassis.
So you don't have to remove the coal load.
Is also an option.

Ton

I used the Tsunami from the Porter in several classic 4-4-0's, with a real speaker, instead of the Porters sounder.
Fits like a glove and the sound is OK.
Before surgery i marked the wires because they are all black.

Ton