Benchwork opinions needed

I have never built tables with a 2/4 frame. I have always used 1/4's. I make my legs out of 2/4's. I attached them to the table with 5/16 bolts. Two bolts per leg. The bottom of the leg I use 5/16 carriage bolts for leveling screws. I drill a hole for the bolt then I drill a little larger hole for the nut  ...............Paul

I plan on staggering mine. On the ends that don't get bolted to another table, both legs will be full length to form a 4x4. Where the ends do get bolted together, I plan on one leg being a short cleat about 12" long. When the tables are bolted together, the 2 full-length legs will then form the 4x4. I see no reason to end up with two 4x4 legs so close to each other. I've used 4x8 tables with single 2x4 legs. Where the tables were bolted together, I didn't bother with a double set of legs. The legs had bottom rails for stability and weren't subjected to a lot of weight though.

You will find that using 1" x 4" white pine will make for less warping and twisting of the legs and frame members.  Plus the finished product will actually be stronger than tables made from 2" x 4"s.  Working with 1" x material will be easier also.  It's lighter and simpler to drill pilot holes for screws.   

The legs should be made from two pieces of 1" x 4" screwed and preferably glued together to form an "L".  

In your case, where you are going to fasten the tables together I would suggest using "sex bolts".  They will allow you to dismantle and reassemble the tables if that is something you have in mind for the future.  

Thanks all for the suggestions.  Well, i have the 2x4's and they are a nice grade (no warping... of course i hand-selected each piece at the shop).  It's probably overkill and I'll end up with a table space that's probably walkable. 

(cut table legs and table frame joists)

the concept plan.  I'm cursed with a room with diagonally-opposed entrance and exit. Train storage closet entrance is upper right, Hallway entrance and rest of basement is the lower left.  Trying to keep it to a minimum o72 in the space, so it's a variation on a dogbone overlapped on 2 levels.

@TomTee - That benchwork is a work of art.  Amazing.

That's some interesting bench work.  Neatly done.  I'm going to ponder the method a bit further.  It's sort of box beam construction which is very strong.  In my next life i'm going to have the room to build such a layout.....LOL

Tomtee, how did you achieve that radius? Muti sheets of thin ply? And what is the dimension of the circle?.

I just visited a large multi-level layout (thanks Peter) that uses 1x4 frames in 4x4 modules with 2x4 legs and 1x2 angled braces. The first module has 4 legs and subsequent modules have only 2. The modules are topped with 1/2" plywood underlayment screwed to the frame with drywall screws and a Homasote-like sub-roadbed is glued on top of that. The modules are bolted together and the result is walkable and very stable. I was going to use 2x4s for rails and 3/4" plywood, but now I'm going to follow his methodology, assuming I can find the Homasote-like material he uses. He also runs GarGraves track and I was completely surprised by how quiet it was. It has caused me to reconsider using GarGraves (Made in USA) and I'm in the process of reworking my design to accommodate its curve sizes. It'll be a lot cheaper and more readily available than either Atlas or ScaleTrax.