QNERailroad

The HO Scale Q&NE is a proto-freelanced regional line between Montreal and southern New England circa late 1980's. A new 7' x 13' addition to the original (2012) 19' x 29' layout is now in service (2025), adding a new staging yard helix and loop representing Montreal, plus a large paper mill with its own yard. Interchange with Conrail remains a big part of the operation on the original layout.

A home-made XL program assigns and tracks customer siding occupancies, car routings, train consists and staging. There are 17 customers, with a combined capacity of 115 cars across 34 tracks. Each operating session sees N/B and S/B Q&NE trains and E/B and W/B Conrail trains. East and west staging loops set up departing trains to be arrivals in a later operating session.

The Q&NE fleet includes 12 GP38's, 4 B40-8's, 9 SW1500/MP15's, 2 GP9's and a rebuilt GP10. The Conrail fleet includes 26 high HP locomotives (SD40/45-2, SD50/60, C40-8, C30-7, B40-8) plus 6 U23B/B23-7's and 4 GP38/40's.