Ticket to Ride Locomotive Rules: Wild Cards, Face-Up Draws & Refills
Locomotive cards are wild in Ticket to Ride: they can stand in for any color when claiming a route. Their draw rules are stricter than normal Train Car cards.
Face-up locomotive rule
If you take a face-up Locomotive as your first draw, that uses your entire Draw Train Car Cards action. You do not take a second card.
Can your second face-up card be a locomotive?
No. If your first card was a normal face-up Train Car card, your second face-up draw cannot be a Locomotive.
What if you draw a locomotive blindly from the deck?
A face-down draw is always blind. If the card happens to be a Locomotive, it counts as a normal one-card draw, so you may still take your second card.
What happens if 3 of the 5 face-up cards are locomotives?
Under the standard base-game rules, discard all five face-up cards and replace them with five new cards.
Can locomotives be used on any route?
Yes. A Locomotive can substitute for any color needed to claim a route, including gray routes where you choose which single color set you are using.
Do you have to use locomotives?
No. They are optional wild cards. If you can pay a route entirely with matching colored cards, you may keep your Locomotives for later.
Related Ticket to Ride guides
Official source
Rules checked September 2026.