Text 1: The four-hour shift beneath Bellford, by Nia Vaughan

An original contemporary magazine article.

At 1.12 a.m., the last passenger train leaves Bellford Central. Thirteen minutes later, Mina Shah and her maintenance team unlock a steel gate and enter the railway tunnel. By 4.52, they must be out and the line must be ready for the morning service.

Every tool has to be carried down 126 narrow steps, so forgetting a spanner can cost half an hour. Before the shift, the team lay their equipment on numbered mats and rehearse the order of the jobs above ground. Underground, the mobile signal disappears. A radio relay unit, fixed at the tunnel's sharpest bend, allows Mina to remain in contact with workers at either end.

Water falling from the roof has mixed with grit to make the walkway slippery. The team moves in single file, calling back warnings about cables and puddles. The air grows warmer as they work and moisture clouds their eye protection, so they take turns wiping the lenses while a partner watches the track.

At 4.20, Mina discovers a cracked metal bracket. The planned survey of the tunnel wall is postponed. Two workers replace the bracket while another checks their work, and the team reaches the gate with three minutes to spare. "You cannot ask the first train to wait because your job took longer than expected," Mina says.

Text 2: A letter from the Rhoswen tunnel works, by Evan Price

An original letter written in a nineteenth-century voice; a period simulation, not an archival document.

In this letter, written in 1866, a labourer describes the construction of a railway tunnel beneath a hill.

Dear Dafydd,

We are now so far beneath the hill that daylight seems a thing remembered from childhood. Six men labour at the tunnel face, where there is scarcely room to swing a pick. The broken stone is passed backwards in baskets from one man to the next, and we exchange places every two hours because the work at the front exhausts a man very quickly.

Water enters through the clay without pause. One pump is kept working day and night, while we have cut narrow channels to carry the rest behind us. Even so, it reaches above our boots before the morning gang arrives.

The roof troubles us more. On Tuesday, small stones began falling whenever the picks struck the wall. The carpenter ordered us back and fixed two more timber frames against the roof. He listens for the timbers splitting and will allow no man forward until he is satisfied.

After the blasting, smoke fills the passage and puts out half our candles. We retreat to the wider part of the tunnel and wait for the air to clear, though the foreman complains that every such delay costs us another yard of progress.

Your brother,

Evan

Explain briefly, using details from both texts, the challenges of working underground and the ways in which the workers responded to them.

Make it clear which text you are referring to.