Old Photos of Unclaimed Lost and Found Items Left On Railway Stations

By | May 19, 2016

Countless number of things have been left on stations and trains by passengers. Normally, these items are collected by railway attendants and surrendered to the lost and found department of the station where they’re stored for safekeeping until the owner claims them.

Over the years this collection of lost and found items grew to an unbelievable mountain of personal belongings, forgotten and unclaimed. And if we go through these things now, we'll see history time-stamped on them.

 
An armful of lost property found on Southern Railway trains, August 30, 1930

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Photo: FOX PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES

 
A worker adds a piece of luggage to the lost property pile at Waterloo Station, London, July 1929

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Photo: FOX PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES

 
The Great Western Railway Lost Property Office, Park Royal, London, April 9, 1931

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Photo: FOX PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES

 
A lost property worker holds a pair of crutches left behind at Skegness station, September 19, 1932

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Photo: FOX PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES

 
A man wears a pith helmet and carries assorted items stored at London Transport's Lost Property Office in London, February 1, 1934

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Photo: HARRY TODD/FOX PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES

 
A collection of items held at Paddington station's Lost Property Office in London, October 19, 1933

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Photo: SSPL/GETTY IMAGES

A lost property attendant weighed down by a selection of hats and toys left behind by travellers at Waterloo Station, London, August 28, 1936

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Photo: A. J. O'BRIEN/FOX PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES

 
c. 1935

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Photo: IMAGNO/AUSTRIAN ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES

 
A collection of abandoned gas masks stored at the London Transport's Lost Property Office, 1940

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Photo: FOX PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES

 
A railway attendant searching for a particular item of clothing in the Lost Property Office at Waterloo Station, January 25, 1940

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Photo: GEORGE W. HALES/FOX PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES

 
A British Transport Lost Property Office, December 19, 1953

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Photo: PICTURE POST/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES

 
Items stored at the lost property office in Paris, c. 1964

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Photo: ROGER VIOLLET/GETTY IMAGES

 
Hundreds of umbrellas in a lost property office in Rome, 1964

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Photo: KEYSTONE/GETTY IMAGES

H/T Mashable