You can specify colClasses on your fread or read.csv statement.
bignums
429382748394831049284934
429382748394831049284935
429382748394831049284936
429382748394831049284937
429382748394831049284938
429382748394831049284939
bignums <- read.csv("~/Desktop/bignums.txt", sep="", colClasses="character")