I considered both Lionmaster and Railking Challengers. To me, whistle steam is a really cool effect, so I got the Lionmaster Challenger with Legacy and whistle steam from three or four (five?) years ago. To my eye, the Lionmaster Challenger does a more aesthetically-satisfying job at "shrinking" the engine down to a size so it can fit on O-31 tracks. Again, to my eye, part of the essence of the "look" of a Challenger is those number boards up top on the front making a kind of ship's-prow around the bell, which I don't see on the Railking Challenger. I also thought the leading truck structure on the Railking Challenger looked truncated in comparison with the more fulsome design on the Lionmaster. Basically, I though the Lionmaster looked more like what I wanted to see in a Challenger and I could get it with a fun special effect that is important to me.
Obviously you may lay different emphases on aesthetics and features and price. To you, the Railking version might look more satisfying. Or the money might be a big difference. To me, the cost of any engine is less significant than the long-term burden of finding enough space for it. You might be more comfortable buying and selling engines all the time, like some people on this forum are. I loathe trying to sell stuff on the Internet and space is at a premium for me, so when I'm evaluating whether to buy an engine I'm really deciding whether I want to commit a finite and shrinking amount of closet space.
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