Milwaukee Road caboose numbers

[Acela82]

Hi,

can anyone tell me which numbers were assigned to Miluwakee roads rib side cabooses? I have seen images with 5 and 6 digit numbers, but where did they start and end?

Thanks, Michael

[BR&P]

When new I believe they carried 5-digit numbers starting with "0" - I have a photo in a book of 01803. In more recent times they apparently were renumbered with 6 digit numbers such as 991977. With the development of computers some roads renumbered their cabooses into that series - for instance a Chessie caboose might have been 993027, which was former B&O C3027 - the computer apparently didn't do well with a letter in a numeric field. ATSF also renumbered their cabooses into such a series I think.

This is speculation, but MILW may have substituted "99" for the "0". If that is the case, 991977 would originally have been 01977.

As for the total number of cabooses or the beginning and ending numbers, I don't have that info, sorry.