Rail travel throughout Europe is generally simple, comfortable, easy and (often) cheap.
Any decent bookshop should be able to get hold of a copy of the Thomas Cook Rail Map of Europe (�8.99):
http://www.foyles.co.uk/foyles/display.asp?K=9 781841576770&sf_01=KEYWORD&st_01=thomas+cook+r ail+map+of+europe&x=0&y=0&m=2&dc=4
(That map is an essential tool if you're planning more than a small amount of European rail travel).
Almost all European railways have their own websites, where you can consult their timetables. However, the German railway, Deutsche Bahn, combines all of the timetables into a common database (in English). You can ask it to plan a rail journey from Scunthorpe to Stockholm without any worries:
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en
To pre-book European rail travel, you can use National Rail's official partner, Rail Europe:
http://www.raileurope.com/us/index.htm
That site is very useful if you want to purchase passes for unlimited travel in certain areas of Europe. However, for a simple single or return rail journey they charge a �10 booking fee on top of the fare. You can avoid this by purchasing your tickets, for rail travel in most European countries, from the UK offices of Deutsche Bahn:
http://www.bahn.co.uk/db_uk/view/index.shtml
Chris