FAIRBANKS - Frost vapor filled the air and ice crusted the hoses at Fairbanks Natural Gas’ storage facility in south Fairbanks as history was made Wednesday.

FAIRBANKS - Last fall’s test of a larger trailer for natural gas was a success for the Interior’s natural gas utility, and there will soon be more on the road.

A ranking of the nation’s best railroad passenger routes puts the Anchorage to Seward trip at number 8.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- On Tuesday, an Alaskan rail company said it will become the first of its kind in the United States to haul cargo of liquefied natural gas.

An Alaska Railroad train was hit by a mudslide near Cantwell early Wednesday, blocking the tracks until the afternoon and requiring passengers aboard stranded trains to be transported by bus.

Passengers traveling along the Alaska Railroad experienced some delays

FAIRBANKS - A mudslide just north of Cantwell early Wednesday temporarily stopped train traffic on the Alaska Railroad.

Alaska Railroad 521, 522, 523 passenger coach painting; 451 passenger coach repair and painting

Looking for new business opportunities to counter a drop in revenues, the Alaska Railroad Corp. this month will become the first railroad in the U.S. to ship liquefied natural gas, in a demonstration project that could help deliver cheaper energy to Fairbanks.

It seems everyone in Alaska loves the Alaska Railroad. The blue and yellow engines and the "Vista Dome" passenger cars excite a sense of romance for many people.

SEATTLE - A fire that broke out on a barge full of shipping containers on the Duwamish Waterway near West Seattle on Monday was caused by rotting garbage inside one of those containers, according to fire investigators.

FAIRBANKS - Usibelli Coal Mine’s last export of coal sailed out of Seward in July, and the Seward coal loading facility is going into cold storage mode, according to the company’s vice president of External Affairs, Lorali Simon.

WHITTIER – They call Whittier "the strangest town in Alaska." The main reason for this reputation comes from the fact that about half of Whittier's residents live in a single building — Begich Towers. The 14-story structure contains condominiums, rental units, city offices, the police department, post office, a mini-market, gym, clinic, pharmacy and church.

The Alaska Railroad is erecting a 6-foot fence along a popular Seward Highway turnout after what the railroad says has been a summer of brazen trespassing on the tracks.

Years ago, I visited the just-opened Spencer Glacier whistle stop—accessible only by Alaska Railroad train—for a tour with Chugach Adventure Guides.

Traffic along the Seward Highway south of Anchorage, brought to a near-standstill Tuesday by the 300-acre wildfire near McHugh Creek, was moving smoothly through the area Wednesday morning.

The last flag stop train in America slows to a crawl at mile marker 239 outside Talkeetna, Alaska, where recluse Jimmy James waits by the tracks with a .44 revolver strapped to his hip, and a steel hook for a left hand he blew off cleaning his shot gun.

To get to the town of Talkeetna, where Alaska’s popular flag-stop train begins its route, take the Parks Highway north from Anchorage through the Anywhere-in-America strip-mall colony of Wasilla, pass Happy Hooker Towing and the neighboring Church on the Rock, go by so many lonesome coffee carts in so many dusty gravel parking lots you’ll lose count and on through the town of Houston, where kids on four-wheelers race down the roadside, kicking up dust.