[Arran]

As for reproducing the fluted molding, I don't think that using a drill to reproduce it will be too successful. If you look at the radius of each flute it makes up maybe 1/3 of a circle, so to reproduce that with a drill means that each hole would overlap, so at the very least you would need a thicker board. It also looks like each flute is parallel to the grain, and quite frankly it's a real pain trying to drill a perfectly straight old through the endgrain of a board. My guess is that by cutting the flutes parallel to the grain they could avoid the cutter, likely a shaper or some sort of molding head cutter, tearing the grain out, it also makes a cleaner cut as opposed to going across the grain.
What they likely did to make this molding is they ran an entire board through a machine, similar to a thickness planer, to cut the profile, maybe 8 or 10 inches wide, then they cut that board across the grain into 1-1/2 inch strips as needed for the set. If someone wanted to reproduce it likely a router and a jig would be the simplest and least dangerous method, or a molding head cutter in a tablesaw, which is a lot more dangerous.
Regards
Arran