In this study, biodiesels from four different locally available Indian feedstocks have been characterized for their physical, chemical and thermal properties. Gas chromatography (GC) has been done to find out the ester composition and thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) has been done to establish vaporization characteristics of these four biodiesels. Previously established correlations were used to determine critical properties of biodiesels, which were in turn used to predict latent heat of vaporization. Good agreement between calculated and experimental vaporization characteristics of biodiesels is seen. These biodiesels were used in Indian Railway's locomotive engines at different fuel temperatures due to varying ambient conditions. Physical properties of biodiesels such as density, viscosity, speed of sound, bulk modulus of compressibility and surface tension are dependent on fuel temperature. Data from previous studies on temperature dependent physical properties was used to determine correlations between fuel temperature and physical properties of these four biodiesels. For comparison, similar correlations for mineral diesel were also established. This study established that these correlations can be used for computing fuel injection and combustion characteristics of biodiesel fuelled locomotive diesel engines. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.