A Question of Gender

Robbie phoned me from work today, just to say hello and to tell me about his day. He has something of the Reginald Perrin about him and he always provides me with a detailed account of his journey to work, paying special attention to any delays and the exact time of arrival. Today he told me that he would be having coffee with a friend of his on 28th Feb. I think it was mentioning the date that set him off, he told me that there was a very important birthday on 28th. After a brief moment of panic, I informed him that no one in our family had a birthday on that day. He told me that the most important female in his life would be 50 on that day. I said that he must have a secret woman because none of the women I could think of would be 50 any time soon. I was only mildly surprised when he said that he was talking about his favourite Deltic, Royal Scots Grey! he told me that all engines are female. He may know a lot about trains but he is wrong about that. My favourite engine is male and he was 50 in 2009, his name is Ivor, whoever heard of a girl called Ivor!!