I had not heard of Northern Pacific's last - minute reluctance at the BN merger, though it is not surprising either. NP was the weakest of all the BN merger roads, even more than SP & S, and their crews probably saw the future as being quite dim. The City of Auburn, WA., home of NP's major yard & shops for Puget Sound, filed suit against the merger claiming a future loss of jobs. Despite BN assurances to Auburn and the I.C.C., the yard & shops were indeed closed, though it took the recession in 1980 to make it final.
I'm not sure I'd buy the Montana Rail Link theory though. I don't think BN had time for such petty antics. The simple fact is, BN was able to rid itself of a inferior route across Southern Montana that included 2 major mountain passes ( Mullan & Bozeman ); yet their lease with MRL allows for almost unlimited use of the line if necessary. The best of both worlds I'd say.
One of the BN Annuals has a lengthy report on the merger planning, including a report by consultant Wyer, Dick & Co. As far back as 1958, this report recommended the GN " Highline " across Northern Montana as the preferred route between Minneapolis & Seattle, with only a few short segments of NP included. Wyer, Dick & Co. was also involved in the Erie Lackawanna merger planning, where the Delaware, Lackawanna, & Western was the weak partner. Same story here, as the DL & W employees lost more jobs than the Erie people. This was despite DL & W being recognized as the better run railroad, while Erie was " The Nepotism Road ".