In the 70s an air freighting company in Miami used Constellations in various states of disrepair flying to and from Central American countries. I was at Belize at the time and one of them landed with No 3 feathered. I saw the flight engineer working on the aircraft and after he had finished I wandered over to have a look.
It was in a shocking state. It still had vestiges of its Pan Am paintwork, dents all over the place and the mainwheels were glistening with engine oil leaks. Going up the steps revealed that the interior was lined with dirty old plywood, as was the floor.
The engineered welcomed me to have a look around the cockpit and then he started up No 4. He ran it for a bit and expressed satisfaction with his fix.
“I thought you had a problem with No 3?” I queried.
“No, there’s not a lot wrong with that one, it uses a lot of oil so we only use it to take off.”