As railway station, Railway station in As, Belgium
As railway station is a former station on lines 21A and 21B east of As village centre. Its 1876-1878 brick building has a two-storey central block with a dark pitched roof, two chimneys, a white scalloped band and four arched windows, flanked by a lower single-storey wing with three arched windows. A white sign reads "ASCH".
The Hasselt–Maaseik line opened on 3 March 1874 with As as one of four stations; a temporary wooden building preceded the brick station erected between 1876 and 1878. After André Dumont found coal near As in 1901, the side wings were lengthened and from 1921 As became the starting point of coal trains. Passenger service ended in 1983 and the building was protected as a monument in 1996.
The station building houses a pub where local people gather, keeping alive a long tradition of Belgian railway station social spaces.
The station stands east of As village centre, on the former line 21A-21B. The building now houses Brasserie 't Stasjon, and the surrounding grounds are laid out with a belvedere and paths of the Hoge Kempen National Park. The line towards Genk was lifted for the F75 cycle highway, which passes the station.
The station is one of the access gates to Hoge Kempen National Park, and the viewing tower beside it copies the shape of a drilling derrick of the kind used to probe for coal here a century ago. The gate focuses on the region's industrial past.
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