create-nodequeues.php

<?php

// If you are unfortunate enough to still be using nodequeues (see entity queue)
// this will should work for creating new queues:
// Note I built the array from a drupal_var_export and a nodequeue load operation
// Then I added the add_subqueue argument and removed the qid (both mandatory).

function mymodule_update_N() {
   $queue = (object) array(
    'name' => 'machine_name',
    'title' => 'Queue name',
    'subqueue_title' => '',
    'size' => '0', // For infinate
    'link' => 'Link title when adding to the queue',
    'link_remove' => 'Link title when removing from queue',
    'owner' => 'nodequeue',
    'show_in_ui' => '1',
    'show_in_tab' => '1',
    'show_in_links' => '1',
    'reference' => '0',
    'reverse' => '1',
    'i18n' => '0',
    'subqueues' => '1',
    'types' => array(
      'applicable_content_type_machine_names',
    ),
    'roles' => array(
      '4', // Allowed role IDs
    ),
    'count' => 0,
    'add_subqueue' => array(0 => 'Promotions'),
  );
  nodequeue_save($queue);
}