Two friends.
Two trains on a roof.
One creative wonderland.
Trainscendence is a ten-floor creative venue in Collingwood. The building came with three trains on the roof. The rest, we made up.
The building came first.
Long before Trainscendence existed, the building did. And the building had trains on its roof.
Easey Street, Collingwood, has long been the kind of address that sticks in Melbourne's memory. Local musician and visionary architect Zvi Belling reimagined the rooftop with something nobody had tried before in this city: three vintage Hitachi train carriages craned into place, side by side, as a permanent part of the building. The project — End to End — went on to be recognised by Good Design Australia.
On the weekend of 31 August–1 September 2013, the operation went down. The first carriage came up by crane on the Saturday. The other two went into position on the Sunday. Each one weighed around 30 tonnes. The cranes had to lift them with very tight tolerances — get it wrong and you're dropping decommissioned rolling stock onto an inner-city street.
They got it right. The trains have sat there ever since, looking like they were always meant to.
Most Melburnians know the building because of Easey’s — the rooftop burger spot famous for diners eating inside one of the carriages. We’re not Easey’s, and although we love Jimmy, Phil and their burgers, the two businesses aren’t affiliated… although we did once build a flying fox so burgers could be delivered straight to our jacuzzi from their kitchen. Easey’s has one full carriage running from the front of the building to the back.
The other two carriages were cut in half. The front halves became Carriage Studios (a working recording studio) and Harry’s Hip Hop Shop. The back halves are us: two trains side by side on Trainscendence’s rooftop. Three carriages, four operators, one shared roof. Look up at the back of Easey Street and you’ve found us.
Trainscendence is what happens inside the building beneath them — across ten floors and seven themed rooms. We didn’t build the trains. We just understood what the building was waiting to become.
Then two friends walked in.
In 2025, two friends — Harley Hefford and Luke Thomas — found themselves looking at the building and at each other and asking the same question: what if?
They didn't know it at the time, but they were about to become brothers in a dream so large that it would forge a bond strong enough to weather almost anything. The only thing they've found capable of testing it so far is a single piece of incorrectly placed decor. The bond holds. Mostly.
Between them: backgrounds in arts, theatre, hospitality and festivals. They'd spent years inside the kind of communities that turn up around bonfires and stages and dance floors and somehow build something real in a weekend. And they kept watching the same thing happen — festivals shutting down, one after another, under the weight of insurance, weather, regulation, rising costs, and the myriad of risks that come with putting people in a paddock for three days.
So they asked the obvious question. Wouldn't it be amazing, they said, if there was a place in the city that felt like the community of a festival — but you didn't get too dirty, you could go all year, you could build real relationships, collaborate on the things you always said you wanted to do, and actually start making a difference in your life and your community?
That's how Trainscendence was born. Not as a venue. As an answer.
A place for all. A place to dream, create, share, grow. A place for imagination with no bounds — that doesn't take itself too seriously, but is dead serious about making an impact.
What we're trying to build.
Four ideas we keep coming back to. They’re not rules — they’re the test we use when we’re deciding what to say yes to.
Festival, all year
The energy of a festival without the mud, the rain, or the once-a-year wait. A creative home that opens its doors every week.
Community first
Regulars who become collaborators. Strangers who become friends. Memberships, classes, workshops and shared spaces designed to make that easy.
A canvas, not a stage
Seven themed rooms, six bars, two trains. Every space is yours to fill with your event, your idea, your weird and wonderful thing.
Serious about impact
We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take this seriously. Make a real difference in your life. In your craft. In your city.
You're closer than your map thinks.
Trainscendence sits in a secret laneway behind 48 Easey Street, Collingwood. Maps will drop you on Easey Street — that's almost right. Walk one street north to Budd Street, look for the laneway, and follow it in. You'll know you're in the right place when you spot two trains on the rooftop.
Come and find us.
The trains are on the roof. The rest is up to whatever you're building, throwing, making or learning.