The Quebec & New England is a proto-freelanced regional railroad that runs between Montreal and southern New England circa late 1980's. The focus of the HO scale 19' x 29' layout is the interchange with Conrail and the many industries served by the Q&NE. Basic buildings and scenery are complete and detailing has begun.
Wireless DCC operations began in 2012 using a home-made XL program that assigns and tracks customer siding occupancies, car routings, train consists and staging. There are 16 customers on the layout, with a combined capacity of 75 cars across 25 tracks. Each operating session sees a N/B and S/B Q&NE train and E/B and W/B Conrail trains. Separate east and west staging loops automatically turn train departures to become 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 24 high HP locomotives (SD40/45-2, SD50/60, C40-8, B40-8) plus 6 U23B/B23-7's and 4 GP38/40's.