Hi falo.
You are rising an interesting point and I like your interest in trying to follow the pipes during the visit to my old boat. Your remarks put me back some 60 years returning from UK, stuffed with knowledge about the various RN subs. only to try to get the KNM Kaura (U 995) running. Quite a few drawings and manuals were non existent, in fact you find probably more details on paper in this forum than available to me at that time. Knowing the details of the pipingsystems is vital for safe operation of a submarine, it is indeed a matter of life and death, not only to know the normal operation of the systems but being conversant with all the emergency alternatives and able to implement same in a stress situation, that make the difference of the qualities of an operational submarine. I spent weeks following pipelines and making sketches before I felt competent to take the job as chief engineer in spite of almost 6 months of submarine training on beforehand. The pipesystems are the veines of a submarine and the crew has to see to it that your boat don`t get a heartinfarct and/or get a bypass if needed. It is great fun to work with a skilled draughtsman like Simon and to see the amazing results and accuracy in his drawings.There are no better references for a modeller, but I agree with you, it would be too much details for an average modeller to implement, use the drawings as a reference for the details you want to show.
Tore