From the BBC News website 10/06/09 (which is also the date on the banner in the picture from the opening ceremony):
An earlier mention on the BBC News website dated 14/05/08 gives an idea of the project progress at the time:
The first working into the terminal after its reopening is reported in this thread (quoting a local newspaper) as being on 10/02/09, when a class 66 arrived to test the infrastructure.
https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/donnington-line-is-live.21884/
The date for being "fully operational" in the same source is given as May 2009, which would match the later report from the BBC that trains had been operating into the terminal for a month before the official opening ceremony.
Added to this, there's an album of photos on Flickr which comprehensively documents the first trains.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/welsh_snapper/albums/72157617126022804/
The photos taken on 10/02/09 show 66431 brought a megafret twin with it to test the infrastructure, without any loading or unloading taking place.
Subsequent photos show 60040 arriving with MoD containers on a 6G51 from Warrington Arpley on 23/03/09 (6G51 was the regular trip when DB had the MoD contract but it rarely ran more than once or twice a week from what I remember). The containers on this train were unloaded, and judging from the number of people milling about it may have been the first revenue-earning service to use the terminal. There are more photos of another container train on 17/04/09, so clearly the terminal had been in use for a while before the official opening ceremony - possibly these were test workings (for staff familiarisation and testing of unloading equipment e.t.c.) before the terminal fully opened to regular traffic.
Traffic in and out of Donnington is sporadic and only runs occasionally. It's been used for rolling stock storage, trial loadings of aggregate, and STVA were using it for wagon repairs for a while, with the occasional trips to and from Warrington Arpley used to move empty car wagons after the regular MoD container traffic dried up.
The main use is by the MoD for the nearby
Defence Fulfillment Centre. The MoD traffic here is almost always in containers, although MoD vehicle traffic has also been handled at Donnington on rare occasions.
6G51 MoD trip arriving from Warrington in 2017 with container traffic (note the stored coal hoppers in the exchange sidings):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisbe71/31559118974/ (Photo: Chris Beardsmore)
The photo linked above makes an interesting comparison with this one from 1986:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisbe71/31633843273/ (Photo: Chris Beardsmore)
MoD containers being unloaded in 2021:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/d1021/50999515048/ (Photo: Mike Hemming)
MoD vehicles on Warwells and Warflats (ex Warminster, via Pengam) in 2018 with 66728:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisbe71/28540919117/ (Photo: Chris Beardsmore)
Aggregate loading in 2018 with 66545:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/d1021/54182815157/ (Photo: Chris Beardsmore)
STVA car wagons on site for attention in 2021, with 67005 on a trip from Arpley:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisbe71/51171951553/ (Photo: Chris Beardsmore)
The current pattern of MoD workings seems to favour one-off special movements rather than the older pattern of regular trip workings between the MoD sites.
The intermodal paths like 4M77 are not just a fever dream - sometimes the MoD run container specials to or from non-military ports (instead of Marchwood) such as a 4Z77 Southampton - Donnington (returning with the same headcode) in June 2021.
4Z77 Southampton - Donnington is seen with empty FAA and FYA wagons:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/d1021/51248603032/ (Photo: Mike Hemming)
4Z77 Donnington - Southampton return working with loaded tank containers:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/d1021/51248793712/ (Photo: Mike Hemming)
And this 4L77 Donnington - London Gateway in Dec 2024 could be mistaken for a regular intermodal if not for the wagons used (mostly FYA) and the lack of 40ft containers:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/d1021/54182815157/ (Photo: Mike Hemming)
For anyone interested, this is a link to a 2025 post about rail-connected MoD sites still in use:
https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/surviving-uk-industrial-railway-systems.279481/post-7203207
Yes, the 1990 Quail map shows it as Stafford Jn, in the 2005 map the junction has been removed, and then it reappears as Donnington Jn in the next edition after the branch reopens.
