RAF Cranwell was first set up in 1915, during the First World War, as "HMS Daedalus", the Royal Naval Air Service's training school for pilots. At that time, its isolation and inaccessibility were extolled as one of the virtues of the site: the young men would have no distractions from the business of learning to fly. But the only practical means of supplying the base with goods and equipment was to construct a railway link with the nearby mainline station at Sleaford, because the roads and farm tracks which led to Cranwell were so poor that they were practically impassable in the winter. The line was unused during the late 1920s though it was reopened during the Second World War. The line continued to provide the base with goods and passenger service until 1956, when it succumbed to the competition of improved roads and bus services and the track was lifted. {1} The line was known by the trainee airmen as the 'Cranwell Express', who used the service on leave periods to reach Sleaford and connect with the wider world. It was not universally popular, however, due to the roughness of the ride and the age and quality of the carriages. {2}