 Between 1845 , the height of the railway bubble , and the 1880s numerous schemes were put forward for railways to Chesham . The most significant was an 1845 scheme for an orbital railway bypassing London to connect the railways entering London from the north , west and south ; this route was to pass through Chesham . The scheme was abandoned , as was an 1853 proposal by railway entrepreneur and former Member of Parliament for Buckingham Harry Verney for a railway line from Watford to Wendover via Rickmansworth and Amersham ( around two miles ( 3 km ) from Chesham ) . Robert Grosvenor , 1st Baron Ebury , whose Watford and Rickmansworth Railway had opened in 1862 , proposed extensions from Rickmansworth to Chesham and Aylesbury , but failed to attract funding and abandoned the scheme . To the north of Chesham , the London and North Western Railway ( LNWR ) promoted a railway link between the Great Northern Railway station at Harpenden and the LNWR 's station at Boxmoor , which would run on to terminate at Chesham . The LNWR baulked at the cost of the earthworks necessary to reach Chesham and the southern stage of the proposal was abandoned ; the line between Harpenden and Boxmoor eventually opened in 1877 . ( The Harpenden – Boxmoor section was never completed ; trains to Boxmoor terminated nearby at Heath Park Halt , and passengers to and from Boxmoor had to complete their journey by horse or horse @-@ drawn bus . ) In 1887 a 3 ft 6 in ( 1 @,@ 067 mm ) tramway was proposed , which was to run through the streets of Chesham and on to Boxmoor , but the proposal was abandoned owing to a lack of funds and opposition from the operators of toll roads around Boxmoor . 
