Information on Specifics of Modern Submarines

[masonman]

Hi, this is my first post on the forums. I'm a gamer and I love submarines (I may or may not have watched The Hunt for Red October more than 15 times), though I have never actually played a subsim. But regardless, I was hoping for some assistance as I know many - if not most - of you guys are also big fans of subs!

So for years as a 3D modeling hobbyist I've been occasionally working on a streamlined way to model complete interiors and exteriors of modern nuclear submarines. I'm kind of obsessed with actually making a complete one. My first attempt years ago was an Akula class (I intended to import it into a FPS I was playing at the time). It was a very low poly model but I got decently far and learned a bit (though I did pretty much bare mininum research). I gave up on that one though, after having made too many big mistakes that made backtracking essentially take more time that starting from scratch.



I toyed around a bit with making a Los Angeles class, but as I experimented with the control room I realized I had ZERO understanding of what most of the stuff in there did. So I spent some time and came to understand more than the basic stuff I already knew (crew life, most of the unclassified crew tasks, how nuclear reactors work and look, how water is pumped in and out of ballast tanks, basics of ship engines, basics of passive sonar, spectrograms, submarine propellers, navigation, etc.).



For most of the interior details I have relied on photos. Over the past couple of years I have amassed a decent library of submarine interior photos, and I have picked apart every little camera shot taken inside submarines from different documentaries, etc. though obviously those are all of two or three rooms on the sub (mess, staterooms, control room, etc.)

I have been doing a lot of searching.

What I was going to ask of the forums was for suggestions of any online resources or books that would aid in my understanding of modern submarine internals. I know I have gaps in knowledge NOT simply caused by some information being classified. From what I can tell, games like Dangerous Waters (and mods for different sims) seem to have a lot of information about submarines in general, and I think that means the information is out there. Subsim's book section is cool, but focuses more on tactics, history, and stories, and less on the engineering side of things. I've picked up "Blind Mans Bluff" and Clancy's "Submarine" as my starting points, and I have read parts of some of the older manuals on WWII era subs. I also bought "Russian Submarines: Guardians of the Motherland" back when I was doing the Akula, and it gave me some pretty great photos.

My current project is a Ohio Class SSBN. (My new idea for a process that will leave me with good results is to start with a floor plan before doing anything in 3D)



Questions I have been struggling for much time to get any good answers to:

1. What does each of the controls in the following image specifically do? (I know there isn't some guide which would tell me directly, but something that would provide details on what would usually be on a modern submarine control panel, etc.). I know any former submariner would pretty much know what every single one does. I know what the purpose of each panel section does, but I have no clue what the gauges individually tell, or what the different switches do.



2. What is the general design or layout of a nuclear powered ship/submarine engine?

3. Whats the philosophy behind certain machines that clearly only have one or two moving parts still needing like 400 buttons and switches all controlling it? Seriously, pick one part of the auxiliary diesel engine and there are dozens of buttons for just for that small section of it. I've never even been in any sort of engine room so I have no clue what the purpose of that is, maybe its all strictly for emergencies or repair?



If I've simply hit the limit of what can be learned, I suppose that is fine. I appreciate that for all classified sections of any boat (and ALL compartments of Chinese, Russian, etc. subs which have no online photos to speak of) the design will have to be an educated guess. I suppose I am also looking for books that would help make those guesses more educated!

Thanks for reading my rather long post. I promise I didn't start thinking it would end up this long.