The workshops which served the needs of the quarry and its locomotives, were built in 1870 on land created from the continuous tipping of spoil from the adjacent Vivian Quarry, and as a replacement for the store sheds which were previously sited there. Rail access to the works was by both
narrow gauge (the quarry gauge) and narrow gauge (that of the
Padarn Railway which carried the slate from the quarry to
Port Dinorwic). Rails also entered the main yard through the main entrance. The quarry closed in 1969 and the site was opened on 25 May 1972 as the North Wales Quarrying Museum. The museum is now connected to the nearby village of Llanberis by the
Llanberis Lake Railway, which uses part of the building as its workshops. The museum reopened after receiving a £1.6 million grant from the
Heritage Lottery Fund and now has displays featuring
Victorian era slateworkers' cottages that once stood at
Tanygrisiau, near
Blaenau Ffestiniog. They were taken down stone by stone and re-erected on the site. The museum includes the multi-media display,
To Steal a Mountain, showing the
lives and work of the men who quarried slate here. The museum also has the largest working
waterwheel in mainland Britain, which is available for viewing via several walkways. The waterwheel was constructed in 1870 by
De Winton of Caernarfon and is in diameter, wide and was built around a axle. Close to the museum is the partly restored Vivian incline, a gravity balance
incline where loaded slate wagons haul empty wagons back up. The museum closed in November 2024 for renovations and will not re-open until 2026. == Locomotives ==