I have tried cutting curved back rails with my band saw. I can get the
curve about right, but there are a lot of marks in it that need to be sanded
out, and I can't maintain the curve when I sand the marks out. Are there
any tricks here? (I mean other than sawing more smoothly so there is
nothing to sand out...) I suppose the outside is easy enough with a ROS,
but the inside needs a drum and that is rather more difficult.

I also tried laminating by clamping to an existing chair rail. It is a bit
of work, but comes out nicely. The chair rail I used was a bit too shallow,
so I took a large block of wood and cut the curve I want into it. At this
point I have two choices. Clamp the laminations to the female form with
clamps, or clamp the laminations between the male and female forms. I
suppose a third option would be to make the male and female forms a half
inch thick, and then put the laminations between them. That might combine
the best of 1 & 2. Whatcha think?