Talk:Mexican Train

Untitled
What does ANAYA mean? From context, it appears to mean "in all variants of the game". Please don't use jargon in Wikipedia articles.

It is a variation of playing:

ANAYA, a player may not play the Mexican train or any other trains until after starting their own train. There is only one Mexican train per game. Once again one half of the domino has to correspond with the central domino. The player who initiates the Mexican train only plays one domino, not a string of them as when he/she started his/her own train. If a player is unable to play a domino on their own train or on the Mexican train, they may play on any other player's train that is 'public'. If they are unable to play on anyone else's public train, or no other players have public trains, they must draw a domino. Once again they may play this newly drawn domino or, if they are unable to do so, that player's train becomes 'public'. A player's train remains public until the time that they are able to play on their own train again. Players may not play on other players' non-public or 'private' trains. A public train is designated by placing a colored marker (or button) on the first domino of the train located closest to the station. Evetetts5 (talk) 03:34, 31 January 2016 (UTC)

Merge Private Trains into this article
The article Private Trains (domino game) is so close to this one that I see no reason for it to be a seperate article. I propose that the other article redirect here, and that this article reference Private Trains as a variant (the major difference is that players may not create a Mexican Train).Liko81 (talk) 14:08, 13 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Nobody commented and it makes a lot of sense, so I did it. I could find no independent sources on a game called "Private Trains" or "Domino Trains", only a quite different game "Basic Trains" on pagat.com. --Hans Adler (talk) 16:23, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Strategy section
The strategy section appears to be the writer's opinion. I play a strategy almost opposite to the one recommended. I think this section is misleading and should perhaps be removed.Symphony Girl (talk) 04:45, 25 December 2010 (UTC)


 * I also note that it contradicts the rules stated earlier in the article. In "Playing Doubles" it states "The player that plays the double has to cover the double or their train becomes public", whereas one of the strategies begins "Because a player playing an unfinished double on someone else's train does not have to mark their own train as public" Wikiwonko (talk) 20:31, 26 April 2022 (UTC)
 * And as an aside, I've always played the rule as stated in the main part of the article. Wikiwonko (talk) 20:32, 26 April 2022 (UTC)

Explain the rules more clearly.
"Each player simultaneously starts their train by playing a domino that matches the double in the engine. Play continues in turn, each player using the dominoes in their hand to make as long of a train as possible by playing matching dominoes one at a time, end to end.

After this, "

What does the upper part in quotation mean? Maybe I build my whole train directly? Is the difference from the next phase that a player who can't lay a domino just passes and doesn't pick a domino from the boneyard? What if I want to play a double during this first phase? Moberg (talk) 00:44, 20 July 2012 (UTC)


 * During setup, each player takes their dominoes, and creates the best train possible, starting with the domino in their pile, that matches the engine. If you don't have one, you hope someone starts the "Mexican" or shared train, be fore your first turn! Otherwise, you will have nowhere to play and you will have to draw one domino and if it doesn't match the engine, your turn ends with you placing your train (token) on the board for anyone else to play on. It will remain there until your turn comes and you can play on your own train. :Evetetts5 (talk) 03:20, 31 January 2016 (UTC)

Starting the game
The article currently says that other sizes of domino set than double-12 may be used, depending on the number of players, but it does not say how many dominoes each player starts with if they are. --76.69.45.64 (talk) 07:17, 26 December 2015 (UTC)

Anouncing last domino (tap or toot your horn)
Every Mexican train set that I've seen or used, had rules stating you have to announce your last dominoes by "tapping" if you could not play it or announcing that you could play it on your next turn, by hitting a train whistle (comes with most sets) or just stating that you could play it. If that is a generall concensus, can we add this to our Wikipedia definition? Evetetts5 (talk) 03:26, 31 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Sure -- as long as you have a source. shoelace203  (talk) 18:06, 31 December 2017 (UTC)

Requested move 23 January 2021

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: Not moved  (t &#183; c)  buidhe  08:50, 30 January 2021 (UTC)

Mexican Train → Mexican train – to use lowercase per MOS:GAMECAPS and recent RMs at Talk:Fuzzy duck and Talk:Snakes and ladders. I have been making some moves and edits of game articles to follow up on what I believe to be the consensus represented by those linked pages. However, another editor has disliked and reverted some of those changes at  (now at ) and, commenting that we should emphasize sources over the internal MoS convention. After some discussion, I am filing this RM to have a discussion to resolve the issue. —&hairsp;BarrelProof (talk) 01:07, 23 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Oppose. I have researched this game extensively and was surprised to discover that it is overwhelmingly called "Mexican Train" (title case) - in novels, in press articles, online gaming sites, other online sites and in the gaming literature. In fact, I struggled to find any that spelt it "Mexican train" except in one or two cases in the body of the rules when referring to the feature of 'the Mexican train' as opposed to players' 'personal trains'. The game itself was always in title case. I am happy to list the references if that is helpful, but there is no doubt that if Wikipedia renames this article it will be virtually unique and not reflecting the WP:SOURCES. It is important to note that MOS:GAMECAPS is part of MOS:CAPS which opens with these words: "Wikipedia relies on sources to determine what is conventionally capitalized; only words and phrases that are consistently capitalized in a substantial majority of independent, reliable sources are capitalized in Wikipedia." That is definitely the case here. Bermicourt (talk) 10:58, 23 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Comment. Further to that, a search of Google Books reveals 17 sources that use the title case form "Mexican Train" - these include: 3 games books and a video games magazine, 3 novels, 3 healthcare/seniors books, 2 autobiographies, 3 women's magazines, one other magazine and a video directory. I have also tracked down 3 sources that use the lowercase form "Mexican train": 2 magazines and a book. They all date to within the last 25 years. In addition, the leading games sites all use title case: for example, pagat.com, boardgamegeek and dominorules.com, the site of international (Texas-based) domino producer, Puremco. That appears to confirm that the current title that meets the fundamental MOS:CAPS criterion of being consistently capitalized in a substantial majority of independent, reliable sources. Bermicourt (talk) 11:59, 23 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Oppose per User:Bermicourt and to avoid confusion with actual Mexican trains. J I P  &#124; Talk 18:32, 23 January 2021 (UTC)
 * If there is confusion with the subject of trains in Mexico (although I'm not aware of encyclopedic coverage of that topic on Wikipedia), a candidate title could be . The capital letter doesn't seem like a good way to try to disambiguate between those topics. —&hairsp;BarrelProof (talk) 18:41, 24 January 2021 (UTC)

Rules when playing a double
Hi there, all fantastic board game people! This Christmas, bound in home by covid, my family and me have started playing Mexican Train for the first time of our life. The rules bundled with the pack I bought was very unclear, so I have searched the web for better rules. This Wikipedia article is by far the best explanation I have found.

However, there is one thing I cannot grasp. When playing a double, the player that played that double has to play one more tile, right? Is he/she obliged to play a tile containing the number he played on the double. Say, for instance, the double was a double 3. Do the next tile then have to be a 3-something? And, if yes, can he/she play that 3-something on any legal 3 dominoe ending train, thus leave the double open? Or is there something elementary here, that I do not get?

Best regards, Sebastian. Birdie Nam Nam (talk) 22:18, 26 December 2021 (UTC)


 * This is explained at pagat.com thus: "From your second turn onwards, whenever you play a double you must play an extra domino, which may go anywhere on the layout where you are allowed to play - not necessarily on the double you just played. If you cannot play a second tile you must draw (if available) and if the drawn tile is not playable you pass and put a penny on your train..." The link to the pagat.com article is here. Pagat.com is the best card game website on the Internet and is not bad for domino games either. Bermicourt (talk) 09:43, 27 December 2021 (UTC)


 * Thaks a lot, Bermicourt! Now, it's play time! :) Birdie Nam Nam (talk) 11:28, 27 December 2021 (UTC)