Collecting tickets from self-service machines

2 is correct, but 5 is not. I've successfully collected tickets using a magnetic-stripe card and, on a different occasion, with a chip-and-signature card.

Not sure about 1, 3, and 4.

I am not sure about #4, but sure you mean no earlier than 2 hours before your train departs. I would suggest getting to the station at least 1 hour early so you can find the ticket machine, wait in line if needed, and then find your gate. I still have nightmares of getting to Edinburgh Waverly station with 5 minutes to spare, asking my dyslexic husband to find the gate to Luton, while I secured the tickets, hurried to #4, only to find out it was gate #14, hauled suitcases up a flight of stairs then down and rushed into the train with 5 seconds to spare. I'm not young, but impressed myself. Will recalculate my timing next time I return a rental car in a major city and have train reservations.

2 is correct.
You should be able to collect all of your tickets at once at a ticket machine. I am unsure if you can collect them at a ticket window.

https://www.virgintrains.co.uk/terms-conditions

Read #10 on this page. It tells you what to do if you have a problem collecting your tickets.

khbuzzard- Thank you for confirming #2 is correct and #5 is not. (Such a relief!)
Gail- Yes. That's what I meant to say about #4. (As an immigrant, I'm still improving my English.) I will make sure to get to the train station earlier. Thank you.

Thank you, Miranda, for also reassuring #2 is correct. I am unsure of collecting all tickets at once at one station. But, I'm sure I can do so if I purchase tickets on captain train.com for France trip as long as the station has SNCF self-service machines or office.

Laura, thank you for the link that does tell me what to do if I cannot collect tickets at a unstaffed station.

You may collect your tickets from machines at any station at your convenience. We tend to do so on our arrival day at the first station we walk near. Were you are leaving from does not matter. The machine will ask you if you want to collect all of your tickets.

It's great to know that, Larry. #1 is answered.:)

I've purchased train tickets for multiple journeys: Bath->Moreton-in-Marsh->Bletchey->Haltwhistle->Edinburgh->Thurso->Aberdeen->York->Canterbury->Hastings->Winchester->London. It's the great circle route and there are many train companies involved. All journeys are already booked and paid for to take advantage of reduced advance purchase prices.

All but one had the option to select where I could pick up the tickets. The list seemed to vary by the train company and I set up to get the tickets for more than one journey in some stations where that looked more convenient. The documentation says that I can pick up the tickets 2 hours after booking, so they should be ready for me when I'm ready for them.

I saw nothing that said anything about your numbers 1, 4 and 5 for any journey, including the ones I booked through Virgin Trains and Virgin Trains East Coast. BTW, one of the Virgin trains East Coast let me print my ticket. I wish all the companies would have done that.

Thank you, Lo, for sharing your experience. It's very helpful. I must have misinterpreted the wording in the booking confirmation of each ticket. Once again, I appreciate the help from all of you.

You can collect your tickets at any rail station at any time. (It may say on the booking reference that you can collect your tickets at the station of departure. I have actually gone to a ticket machine at a local station that was not my station of departure, put the booking number into the machine along with the debit card & out have come the tickets).
The 2 hour thing is just to inform people booking on the day that they will not be able to get their tickets out the machine for maybe up to 2 hours.

You will need the booking reference number (s) and the debit card used to make the booking. If you go to a staffed ticket office - preferably not at peak time, they should provide you with your tickets.

If anybody wants to get answers on Britain's Railways from rail geeks, you could sign up with the following site. They have a section on fares. http://www.railforums.co.uk

James -- in re your second para, do you mean that people shouldn't be able to expect to pick up their tickets within the first two hours after they've purchased them online? And then that anytime after that should be fine?

there'll be an avalanche of bits of paper spewed from the machine all looking very similar

Look carefully after patiently waiting for the printing to stop. There will be a receipt, a not valid for travel, the ticket, and if they are Advance either the reservation for the one and only train it is valid on will be in tiny tiny print at the bottom of the ticket OR it will be on a second piece of ticket material. If the ticket says only valid with reservation number XXXX MAKE SURE you pick up that piece of ticket material before you leave the machine. If collecting several tickets do that for each one.

Trust me - on Advance tickets you MUST have both parts or the Train Manager is likely to charge you for a full new ticket as if you had none.

I see it all too often.

You can pick up your tickets at ANY station that has the kiosks. You are not limited to the station that you are asked to select online.
We have done this. It works.

Yes Kim, you are correct in your interpretation of my statement. If you order your tickets on-line, you may not be able to get them out of a ticket machine within 2 hours of booking on-line. Anytime after that is fine.

Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences with me. I'm so excited to take my very first trip to England and visits places by train with confidence. 😁