Go to www.railsaver.com

I went to rail saver, but I was just wondering what I should expect when I get to the actual train station, which option would provide the least amount of hassle.

The hassle factor depends on your itinerary and travel style. Generally, using a railpass is less hassle. If the specific train doesn’t require a reservation, you can just hop on the train. If you take a train that requires a reservation, you have to buy the reservation. In most cases that’s less hassle, or about the same amount of hassle, as buying a ticket for that specific train.

The exception, IMO (others may disagree), is Italy. In Italy, lots of trains require reservations. While there are tons of trains, so you can avoid trains that require reservations, the trains that run at the prime times (like morning and evening departures) often require reservations. It is very fast and easy to buy a ticket (with reservation if needed) from the kiosks or from trenitalia.com However, to buy "just a reservation" to use with your railpass, you have to go to a window and the lines are sometimes miles long. You’d have the same problem with lines if you chose to buy a ticket from the window instead of using the automated systems.

I plan on buying all of my tickets and reservations at home, just because I heard that it was easier, is this recommended?

I do agree with Old Lady about reservations on Italian trains. I’d had several bad experiences with lack of seats on Italian trains (including once, when I’d bought a 1st-class ticket, and was unable to find a seat. I sat on my luggage in the vestibule between coaches until the conductor came around, and he discovered that many of those sitting in 1st-class seats not only didn’t have 1st-class tickets, but had no tickets at all!).
In France (I’m thinking about the Lyon Part Dieu station here), I’ve waited in a line for 20 minutes to buy a ticket. My credit card doesn’t work in the French automated ticket/reservation machines, so that was my only option.
Keep in mind that, with a pass, you’ll have to wait in line at once when you validate your pass, and will have to wait if you take a train that requires reservations (for example, the TGV in France).
I’m an advocate of passes because some have saved me money, but also because they reduce (or even eliminate) the need to wait in lines before boarding your train.

CComeau — Unless a 20 minute wait in line is worth $100 to you, DO NOT buy your tickets before you leave home. You will be overcharged for the tickets, overcharged for the reservations, plus you will pay shipping and handling fees. End result is that tickets bought from home can end up costing twice as much.

Exception: If you can buy the ticket on-line directly from the national rail company (Bahn.de for Germany, SNCF.com for France, trenitalia.com for Italy, etc.) you’ll pay the same price as buying it in person.

Buy any railpasses (not individual tickets) before you leave home. They cost significantly more in Europe and aren’t easy to buy.

When and how do I make reservations while in Europe, what I mean to say is how far in advance do I have to do it, weeks or hours? Thanks for all of your help so far!

How far in advance to make a reservation depends on a number of factors; I travel in off-season (Sept-May, for the most part), and I can make reservations for trains such as the TGV in France up to minutes before departure. On the other hand, there are a few days each year when travel tends to be very heavy (eg, around July 1st in France heading south), so if you must travel then, or at the time of certain holiday weekends, or if there’s a particular train that you absolutely must catch (one that takes you to the airport fro your flight home), or if tou’re reserving a sleeping compartment, ten reserve ahead.
It’d be very rare for a train to sell out reservations and, if that happens, there’s usually an earlier or later choice.

Typically you should make reservations about a day in advance for day trains and about 3 days in advance for overnight trains. If you’re traveling during August and on Friday and Sunday nights, you might want to get reservations further in advance. You usually need to buy reservations at least an hour before departure. With wait-in-line time that means you should get to the station about 2 hours in advance if you don’t already have a reservation.

Best bet is to get the reservations at the train station. You can buy reservations for almost any train in Europe at any major train station. Thus, if you’re sure of your itinerary you can save line waiting time by buying all your reservations at once. Another strategy: Buy your reservation for the train you plan to take go to your NEXT destination when you arrive in a new city — before you leave the train station. This avoids a trip back to the train station to buy reservations.

I have recently (May/June 06) made a train trip Amsterdam -Paris-Cologne-Innsbruck-Lienz-Vienna. The decision was made not to buy a railpass, but to buy individual tickets instead. I would have liked to buy the entire trip in Amsterdam, but that was not possible. Only the first section could be bought..to Paris, and from there I had to buy every section in turn, as I arrived in each place. I tried in Paris again, if I could buy the tickets beyond Cologne, but that couldn’t be done. Because the stay in each place was only a couple of days, it was not possible to get the cheap deals, that the locals get, who can buy sometimes extremely cheap tickets more than two weeks before. So I suspect that paying the full price for the tickets may have been a less favorable deal than buying the rail pass.
However, there was little hassle with reservations. Only the Thalys trains from Amsterdam to Paris and from Paris to Cologne needed reserved seats, and they were certainly full, but the other trains (ICE) did have enough space, at that time at least, and didn’t need reservations.
I always bought the tickets immediately after arriving in the next city, apart from the travel in Austria. I wonder, if that is a risky strategy in the high season, especially, if one has reserved accommodation, and the ongoing ticket can only be bought as one arrives in each place. I would personally not want to chance that, and travelled before the high season because of that.