Hi Kevin,
Yes, this is possible, and yes, your final thought sounds prudent (albeit More Work). You could also try first saving the existing queue project as a Template, and if the queue settings, queue topics, and routing rules are preserved, cull that Template back to Just What You Need, then create the new testbed Project from that Template.
Whichever path you choose, I’d suggest you consider taking advantage of your preview environment (where the data is as of last weekend, and email alerts are off, by design) to confirm your assumptions, rehearse for eventually repeating in production, and possibly avoid the latter if preview fulfills your testbed needs.
Regards,
Doug