Pontville Rifle Range

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Type : Halt
Line : Apsley Branch
Distance from Brighton Junction : 004.224km
Opened : Unknown
Closed : 29 September 1947 (formal), final service 14/1/1948.
Status : Closed
Name meaning : Possibly translated from the French as 'bridge town' and that it could describe the bridge over the Jordan River.
Notes : WTT of 1945 calls this location "New Military Road Crossing". Located at the 2 mile and 50 chain mark (4.224km) (as measured from Brighton) was a level crossing that entered the Pontville Rifle Range.
At this spot the Army built a corrugated iron shed on the Down side of the line with a concrete loading bank;  no loop or siding served the location.
Although the range had existed since the early 1900s, there is no given date for the construction of the siding in the primary sources although it was possibly built during World War Two.
On 10 February 1944 at approximately 4:15pm, a soldier was killed and two others of a party of eight were seriously injured on the level crossing when a military motor lorry was struck by a goods train on its way from Apsley to Hobart.
This was one of the last locations that received a weekly (Saturday) railcar service on the truncated line before final closure from Hobart with the final advertisement (for a free train) on Wednesday 14th January 1948.

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14/1/1948 - Mecury