A couple of days ago I downloaded Simutrans-experimental with pak.128-britain experimental, read through the tips and the FAQ, and have been failing ever since. I started in 1880, and connected the cities in one corner of the map with a couple of train lines:(http://i.imgur.com/l0ptWIw.png)
Each line runs with about 20 minute frequencies, and every month I lose $2000 in operating profit - this is the best I've been able to do after a couple of days of trying. I've been using the tracks with the lowest maintenance costs and the brick platform with building, but I'm still collapsing under maintenance costs. (http://i.imgur.com/NXK6I01.png)
I've tried searching and found nothing: is there some trick I'm missing on how to be profitable in the early game?
This is a link to my save game, if anyone would like to take a look and give me some tips on what I'm doing wrong:
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=D06EF7F0CE26557B!6411&authkey=!ABo6bVMqZzS_FLI&ithint=file%2c.sve
You don't seem to have fully covered each city. A station covers a certain distance, e.g. the distance passengers are prepared to walk. I think in pak128.Britain this distance is 4 tiles. (There is an option to view which tiles are covered). So you have to arrange local passenger services to each station, for example by bus. That way, a lot more passengers will be transported, which might make your lines more profitable.
I know Experimental differs from Standard in the way passengers are generated, but I think local passengers services are still needed. Someone who plays Experimental might know better though.
(By the way, there is also a possibility to play on after you went broke. Start simutrans with -freeplay and you can experiment a bit longer)
for pax and mail, start off with slower services, which would be ships or horse and carriage.
You need to string together a minimum of 10 cities before rail becomes feasible.
pax/mail don't mind waiting for hourly train services, which reduces running costs.
try and serve the industries with ships as well, as this gives a good return on investment.