The article deals with the procedures for certification of private locomotives in order to grant authorization for their operation on certain public railway lines. The special feature of the certification is that, as a rule, locomotives belonging to departments, enterprises and organizations that are not within the management sphere of JSC "Ukrzaliznytsia" and were not previously used on public railway lines of Ukraine, but are now presented for participation in the project, can be of several types, different years of construction, have different diesel operating hours (SMU hours), different degrees of wear of the mechanical part of load-bearing structures, wheelsets, trolleys, couplings, braking equipment, different technical condition of measuring instruments, safety devices and air tanks, devices security, etc. Therefore, the article presents the provisions of certification schemes (models) that can be used by the certification body for the certification of single locomotives and batches of private locomotives, and their aspects. The paper also presents the basic normative documents according to which certification procedures are carried out. The key aspects of existing certification testing of locomotives are specified. The scope of work on technical diagnostics of locomotives for certification is described. The procedure and duration of the direct certification process are given taking into account the analysis of documentation, technical inspection, provision of expert evaluation, selection and identification of a sample (samples) of a representative item from the batch submitted for sampling, certification testing, processing and registration of test results, comprehensive conclusion on compliance of the locomotive with the requirements of regulatory and technical documents, decision-making on the possibility (or impossibility) of issuing a certificate.