It would be great, then, if you could give us some of your ideas of how the service measures up to what you're more familiar with, after you take the trips!
Things like the quality of food/drink/etc, the comfort of the journey, the attitudes of staff, how user-friendly the stations are, etc. (But please, no locomotive chat
)
Personally I have mixed feelings about the Birmingham to London (Virgin) but I haven't had the pleasure of first class...