I am finishing up a train table (for Thomas/Brio train stuff) for my
son and I have been planning to attach the legs to the table using
screws or bolts. I have heard many people say that a glue joint is
stronger than the wood itself. If this is true, do you really need a
mechanical fastener?

Basic description of my design: I have a 1x4 frame for the the table.
I have a dado running a ring around the frame about 1" above the
bottom with a 1x2 in the dado to support the table (this gives about a
1" lip around the top to keep the trains from rolling off). The legs
are two 1x3s glued to form an 'L' and are about 18" long. The legs
fit inside the frame (or skirt, I guess you could call it), and extend
about 1" inside. Thus, there is about a 1"x3" rectangle of surface
area where the legs contact the table frame. I have been planning to
run bolts (something nice looking) through the table frame and legs to
securely fasten the legs to the table.

The comment about glue being stronger than the wood makes me wonder if
I could just face glue the legs to the inside of the frame. (hope my
description has made this make sense). Would this be strong enough?
Or do I need screws or a bolt? Would the torsional forces of kids
pushing the table around or leaning on it break the glue joint? If
the glue is "truly" stronger than the wood, I would think that the
legs would break before the joint. If this is the case, the bolts
don't add any strength.

If I just use glue, should I use gorilla glue? Or is plain yellow
glue strong enough? (I recently bought some gorilla glue, but have
never used it)

Thanks,
YJJim