Travelling by train in europe?

Im planning on travelling across europe by train this summer, has anyone else done this recently? Im looking for companies that sell tickets and any tips or advice from people who have actually done it or spoken to someone who has.

I want to know things like any problems i may encounter, where can i get the best deals...?

Any advice i dont want to do this COMPLETELY unplanned

Thanks in advance.

Firstly, rail travel is easy in Europe, it really is an amazing system. You can train from London to anywhere in Europe.
This type of travel is known as inter railing and is done by thousands of people every year.

Just google the term inter railing and let the fun begin.

You can get passes on such websites as;

www.raileurope.com

Eurail pass............ they can only be purchased in the US if you are from the US...Check it out on the net.

I live in Italy and travel extensively using the trains. It's a great way to get around here.

You have a couple of options: a rail pass or point-to-point tickets. There are at least two types of rail passes. InterRail is for EU citizens or residents; Eurail is for everybody else.

http://www.interrail.net/
http://www.eurail.com/

The passes can be a good deal if you do a lot of train travel. However, it's often cheaper to just get individual tickets from the national train systems. With the passes, the higher speed trains require additional supplements/reservations fees. http://www.eurail.com/1_reservations_supplements_domestic , http://www.eurail.com/1_reservations_supplements_international_trains
The slower regional trains that may require multiple train changes don't have a supplement in addition to the pass cost.

If you buy tickets in advance from the national train systems, there are often discounted prices available. Here in Italy, there's an Amica fare on the higher speed domestic trains that saves you up to 20% if the ticket is bought at least the day before you travel.

You can determine whether a pass is worth it to you, but putting together a rough itinerary and pricing the cost of the pass against individual tickets. The German train website is a good resource for planning schedules throughout Europe: http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml You'll need to go to the other national train websites to price tickets on routes in other countries. Such as: http://www.ferroviedellostato.it/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=3fdbe14114bc9110VgnVCM10000080 a3e90aRCRD (Italy)
http://www.ns.nl/ (Netherlands)
http://www.oebb.at/ (Austria)