BLACKBURN'S oldest double decker bus has rolled back into town after 30 lost years.

The Darwen Transport Trust has spent £2,000 to buy the 1949 Guy Arab -- formerly the Blackburn Transport No. 133 bus -- from a collector in Stafford.

The bus was sold off in 1971 when it was retired from active service.

The trust tracked the bus down, but its members are uncertain of where it had been in the previous 30 years.

The trust is planning to spend a further £1,500 to restore the bus back to mint condition so it can be driven around the country to bus rally meetings.

The group owns 14 old buses from the Blackburn and Darwen area and aims to preserve local heritage.

Eventually they plan to set up a museum to put the buses on permanent display, but at present they have to be content to exhibit them at one-off shows.

The trust has been running for 10 years and has around 60 members -- including a couple of East Lancashire exiles from Canada -- who were keen to track down the Guy Arab for the collection. And luckily, the present owner was happy to return it to its home town.

Peter Dawson, the trust's secretary and a bus driver himself, said the man offered the Guy Arab for sale at a cheaper price to them.

He said the bodywork would be restored by next May in time for the rallying season, but its engine was in good condition.

Mr Dawson said: "The Guy was sold off in 1971 and I think it went to someone for preservation straight away.

"Our buses end up all over the place.

"We set up the group because nobody else was doing this and I had a thing about driving old buses.

"But buses are also part of the town's history, and in the past, particularly in the 1960s, we lost so much of our history.

"There's not a lot left now and people identify with the colours of the corporation buses.

"Everybody used to go to school on them."

The trust was on Saturday exhibiting four buses in King William Square, in Blackburn town centre, to raise the funds for the restoration project.

The trust is a registered charity that obtains its funds from members' subscriptions and collections.