You're right: I think Devore was best known for its couplers. I remember a mention in MR, back in the '50s, by a modeler in S scale who said the HO couplers were exactly scaled for S, which would make them oversized (surprise, surprise!) for HO. He said all you had to do is rebend the trip pin to reach uncoupling ramps scaled for 3/16"=1'. I was in S for a couple of years but didn't make much headway. (A lot of us switched scales in those days and I settled into HO after spending several years in O, myself.)
Model railroading is fun--and interestsing!--in any scale.
Deano
I suspect most of us who recall the Devore name think of them for their automatic knuckle style coupler in HO and O (and soon, S, although some ads said HO, O and American Flyer) which they introduced around 1950. It worked reliably except (in common with many automatics) on curves and although it was advertised as being to scale and the MR product review in September 1949 said it was absolutely to scale, to me it looked a bit like a Kadee#5 in that in HO at least it was slightly oversize. Ads in MR circa 1950 shows their address as being in Los Angeles, and later Pasadena CA.
Somewhere in some box I have one of those couplers which came on a freight car I bought at a swap meet. It does not mate with Kadee but looks like it should. However it might be that what I really have is an Athearn coupler because they came out with an automatic knuckle coupler about that same time that looked very similar and was priced about the same.
Devore called itself "makers of small castings." By August 1951 MR they were advertising an entirely new knuckle coupler and draft gear box, urged people to talk to their dealer, "Please do not write for literature" and gave no address although later ads mentioned Pasadena again. In 1953 they were advertising sprung passenger car trucks and a line of "shorty" streamlined passenger cars. The ads for Devore seemed to stop about that time. I was not aware they made freight cars.
Dave Nelson
There's some information HERE.
Scroll down and click on "DEVORE", then, on the next screen, click on "Miscellaneous Diagrams". You'll find three listings there for Devore. There may be other listings elsewhere on the same site.
Wayne