 In 1869, at age 22, Westinghouse invented a railroad braking system using compressed air.The Westinghouse system used a compressor on the locomotive, a reservoir and a special valve on each car, and a single pipe running the length of the train (with flexible connections) which both refilled the reservoirs and controlled the brakes, allowing the engineer to apply and release the brakes simultaneously on all cars.It is a failsafe system, in that any rupture or disconnection in the train pipe will apply the brakes throughout the train.