arcpy.MakeFeatureLayer_management(pipes,"pipeslyr")
arcpy.SetParameter(0,"pipeslyr")
pipesnew = os.path.join(ws,"pipesnew")

arcpy.CopyFeatures_management("pipeslyr", pipesnew)

import arcpy
from arcpy import env

arcpy.env.workspace = "in_memory"

selected_features = "The Feature Class with the selection.shp"
pipes = "the new feature class to convert to a layer"

#this will create a new feature class from the selected features but will do it In Memory
arcpy.CopyFeatures_management (selected_features, pipes)

#Now do all the other stuff you want like convert it to a layer and work with it

arcpy.MakeFeatureLayer_management(pipes,"pipeslyr")