Caboose Paint

This is to anybody who has a clue about painting a wooden caboose. The Sumpter Valley's caboose #5 is a nice little car, but she is due for a new coat of paint. The problem is that I don't really have a lot of info on how to paint a caboose. I'm guessing that she just needs to be sanded down and a at least two layers of a high quality oil based house paint applied, but maybe I'm wrong. I also want to repaint her handrails and such, so I'm guessing that I use the same procedure and put on a couple coats of laquer black house paint. Now comes prototypical accuracy. I have only seen one photo of a SV caboose right after it was built, and it appears to have a glossy red paint job. Wasn't it standard practice on any railroad for just about any car to always get a coat of glossy paint when it rolled out of the shops or was repaired? If any body has any info, comments, or questions I'd love to hear them.
Thanks, Taylor