Line 21B
Information
I photographed this railwayline in Augustus 2007. Along the line lots of railway historical things can be found. The data above is about the railway from As to Eisden-station. There the lines branches in a track to the mines and a track to the shipyard. The 2.5 km long track to the shipyard was closed and broken up around 1985. The branch to the mines was closed in the nineties and broken up in the same decade.
History
The railway was constructed in 1925 as part of the coalmine-railways. The line branched at As off the line 21A. In 1926 the line was opened. Passenger traffic was stopped in the spring of 1983. The freight traffic was officially stopped in 1988, but freight trains used the tracks untill around 1992. In 1990 the track between Waterschei and Eisden-station was used as a touristic railway. In 1996 however the railway was put out of use. In the year 2000 the VZW Kolenspoor started the touristic exploitation again. I do not know if this company still uses the tracks but at least there are some signs at the old stations with the Kolenspoor name on it. I did not see any driveable trains.