Expensive and elaborate it may be, but it is also very stable and needs virtually no maintenance. Height is maintained at a level either by shuttering and filling with concrete before laying the blocks or by taking the top surface off the soil, getting the block level and piling a bit of concrete on either side to hold it up and fill the gaps. A grass bank can be piled up on one or both sides, or a flower bed. The result is a sturdy, human, weather and animal proof trackbed. This again is fairly heavy engineering but as far as I'm concerned, it means the track is always runnable and, when railway time is unpredictable, and maybe months apart, debris removal is the only preparatory work necessary.
Buildings are of a robust structure - a perspex box covered with balsa and corrugated plastic.
Coaches are of the same perspex box structure and have stood up to fifteen years of use without failing. There are currently built 115 items of rolling stock, including two of the six-wheeled Clemenson wheelbase trucks. There are three live steam Southwold engines. That concludes our little web page on the Southwold Railway.