diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index caa9bd11..7052463a 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ Icon API was improved to be more flexible, but one of the changes is backwards-i
 #### Other breaking API changes
 
  * Improved `TileLayer` constructor to interpolate URL template values from options (removed third `urlParams` argument).
+ * Changed `TileLayer` `scheme: 'tms'` option to `tms: true`.
  * Replaced ugly control position constants (e.g. `L.Control.Position.TOP_LEFT`) with light strings (`'topleft'`, `'bottomright'`, etc.)
  * Removed `Map` `locateAndSetView` method (use `locate` with `setView: true` option)
  * Changed popup `minWidth` and `maxWidth` options to be applied to content element, not the whole popup.
@@ -73,6 +74,7 @@ Icon API was improved to be more flexible, but one of the changes is backwards-i
  * Added `TileLayer` `redraw` method for re-requesting tiles (by [@greeninfo](https://github.com/greeninfo)). [#719](https://github.com/CloudMade/Leaflet/issues/719)
  * Added `TileLayer` `setUrl` method for dynamically changing the tile URL template.
  * Added `bringToFront` and `bringToBack` methods to `TileLayer` and vector layers. [#185](https://github.com/CloudMade/Leaflet/issues/185) [#505](https://github.com/CloudMade/Leaflet/issues/505)
+ * Added `TileLayer` `loading` event that fires when its tiles start to load (thanks to [@lapinos03](https://github.com/lapinos03)). [#177](https://github.com/CloudMade/Leaflet/issues/177)
  * Added `TileLayer.WMS` `setParams` method for setting WMS parameters at runtime (by [@greeninfo](https://github.com/greeninfo)). [#719](https://github.com/CloudMade/Leaflet/issues/719)
  * Added `TileLayer.WMS` subdomain support (`{s}` in the url) (by [@greeninfo](https://github.com/greeninfo)). [#735](https://github.com/CloudMade/Leaflet/issues/735)
  * Added `originalEvent` property to `MouseEvent` (by [@k4](https://github.com/k4)). [#521](https://github.com/CloudMade/Leaflet/pull/521)
@@ -118,7 +120,7 @@ Icon API was improved to be more flexible, but one of the changes is backwards-i
  * Fixed a bug where `TileLayer` `setOpacity` wouldn't work when setting it back to 1.
  * Fixed a bug where vector layer `setStyle({stroke: false})` wouldn't remove stroke and the same for fill. [#441](https://github.com/CloudMade/Leaflet/issues/441)
  * Fixed a bug where `Marker` `bindPopup` method wouldn't take `offset` option into account.
- * Fixed a bug where `TileLayer` `load` event wasn't fired if some tile didn't load (by [@cfis](https://github.com/cfis)) [#682](https://github.com/CloudMade/Leaflet/pull/682)
+ * Fixed a bug where `TileLayer` `load` event wasn't fired if some tile didn't load (by [@lapinos03](https://github.com/lapinos03) and [@cfis](https://github.com/cfis)) [#682](https://github.com/CloudMade/Leaflet/pull/682)
  * Fixed error when removing `GeoJSON` layer. [#685](https://github.com/CloudMade/Leaflet/issues/685)
  * Fixed error when calling `GeoJSON` `clearLayer` (by [@runderwood](https://github.com/runderwood)). [#617](https://github.com/CloudMade/Leaflet/pull/617)
  * Fixed a bug where polygons/polylines sometimes throwed an error when making them editable manually (by [@cfis](https://github.com/cfis)). [#669](https://github.com/CloudMade/Leaflet/pull/669)
diff --git a/src/layer/tile/TileLayer.js b/src/layer/tile/TileLayer.js
index 0f00e310..fbb0c68e 100644
--- a/src/layer/tile/TileLayer.js
+++ b/src/layer/tile/TileLayer.js
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ L.TileLayer = L.Class.extend({
 		errorTileUrl: '',
 		attribution: '',
 		opacity: 1,
-		scheme: 'xyz',
+		tms: false,
 		continuousWorld: false,
 		noWrap: false,
 		zoomOffset: 0,
@@ -192,6 +192,7 @@ L.TileLayer = L.Class.extend({
 		}
 
 		this._tiles = {};
+		this._tilesToLoad = 0;
 
 		if (this.options.reuseTiles) {
 			this._unusedTiles = [];
@@ -234,16 +235,21 @@ L.TileLayer = L.Class.extend({
 		var queue = [],
 			center = bounds.getCenter();
 
-		var j, i;
+		var j, i, point;
+
 		for (j = bounds.min.y; j <= bounds.max.y; j++) {
 			for (i = bounds.min.x; i <= bounds.max.x; i++) {
-				if (!((i + ':' + j) in this._tiles)) {
-					queue.push(new L.Point(i, j));
+				point = new L.Point(i, j);
+
+				if (this._tileShouldBeLoaded(point)) {
+					queue.push(point);
 				}
 			}
 		}
 
-		if (queue.length === 0) { return; }
+		var tilesToLoad = queue.length;
+
+		if (tilesToLoad === 0) { return; }
 
 		// load tiles in order of their distance to center
 		queue.sort(function (a, b) {
@@ -252,16 +258,37 @@ L.TileLayer = L.Class.extend({
 
 		var fragment = document.createDocumentFragment();
 
-		this._tilesToLoad = queue.length;
+		// if its the first batch of tiles to load
+		if (!this._tilesToLoad) {
+			this.fire('loading');
+		}
 
-		var k, len;
-		for (k = 0, len = this._tilesToLoad; k < len; k++) {
-			this._addTile(queue[k], fragment);
+		this._tilesToLoad += tilesToLoad;
+
+		for (i = 0; i < tilesToLoad; i++) {
+			this._addTile(queue[i], fragment);
 		}
 
 		this._container.appendChild(fragment);
 	},
 
+	_tileShouldBeLoaded: function (tilePoint) {
+		if ((tilePoint.x + ':' + tilePoint.y) in this._tiles) {
+			return false; // already loaded
+		}
+
+		if (!this.options.continuousWorld) {
+			var limit = this._getWrapTileNum();
+
+			if (this.options.noWrap && (tilePoint.x < 0 || tilePoint.x >= limit) ||
+				                        tilePoint.y < 0 || tilePoint.y >= limit) {
+				return false; // exceeds world bounds
+			}
+		}
+
+		return true;
+	},
+
 	_removeOtherTiles: function (bounds) {
 		var kArr, x, y, key;
 
@@ -299,25 +326,7 @@ L.TileLayer = L.Class.extend({
 	},
 
 	_addTile: function (tilePoint, container) {
-		var tilePos = this._getTilePos(tilePoint),
-			zoom = this._map.getZoom(),
-		    key = tilePoint.x + ':' + tilePoint.y,
-		    limit = Math.pow(2, this._getOffsetZoom(zoom));
-
-		// wrap tile coordinates
-		if (!this.options.continuousWorld) {
-			if (!this.options.noWrap) {
-				tilePoint.x = ((tilePoint.x % limit) + limit) % limit;
-			} else if (tilePoint.x < 0 || tilePoint.x >= limit) {
-				this._tilesToLoad--;
-				return;
-			}
-
-			if (tilePoint.y < 0 || tilePoint.y >= limit) {
-				this._tilesToLoad--;
-				return;
-			}
-		}
+		var tilePos = this._getTilePos(tilePoint);
 
 		// get unused tile - or create a new tile
 		var tile = this._getTile();
@@ -327,22 +336,24 @@ L.TileLayer = L.Class.extend({
 		// (other browsers don't currently care) - see debug/hacks/jitter.html for an example
 		L.DomUtil.setPosition(tile, tilePos, L.Browser.chrome);
 
-		this._tiles[key] = tile;
+		this._tiles[tilePoint.x + ':' + tilePoint.y] = tile;
 
-		if (this.options.scheme === 'tms') {
-			tilePoint.y = limit - tilePoint.y - 1;
-		}
-
-		this._loadTile(tile, tilePoint, zoom);
+		this._loadTile(tile, tilePoint);
 
 		if (tile.parentNode !== this._container) {
 			container.appendChild(tile);
 		}
 	},
 
-	_getOffsetZoom: function (zoom) {
-		var options = this.options;
-		zoom = options.zoomReverse ? options.maxZoom - zoom : zoom;
+	_getZoomForUrl: function () {
+
+		var options = this.options,
+			zoom = this._map.getZoom();
+
+		if (options.zoomReverse) {
+			zoom = options.maxZoom - zoom;
+		}
+
 		return zoom + options.zoomOffset;
 	},
 
@@ -355,15 +366,34 @@ L.TileLayer = L.Class.extend({
 
 	// image-specific code (override to implement e.g. Canvas or SVG tile layer)
 
-	getTileUrl: function (tilePoint, zoom) {
+	getTileUrl: function (tilePoint) {
+		this._adjustTilePoint(tilePoint);
+
 		return L.Util.template(this._url, L.Util.extend({
 			s: this._getSubdomain(tilePoint),
-			z: this._getOffsetZoom(zoom),
+			z: this._getZoomForUrl(),
 			x: tilePoint.x,
 			y: tilePoint.y
 		}, this.options));
 	},
 
+	_getWrapTileNum: function () {
+		// TODO refactor, limit is not valid for non-standard projections
+		return Math.pow(2, this._getZoomForUrl());
+	},
+
+	_adjustTilePoint: function (tilePoint) {
+		// wrap tile coordinates
+		if (!this.options.continuousWorld && !this.options.noWrap) {
+			var limit = this._getWrapTileNum();
+			tilePoint.x = ((tilePoint.x % limit) + limit) % limit;
+		}
+
+		if (this.options.tms) {
+			tilePoint.y = limit - tilePoint.y - 1;
+		}
+	},
+
 	_getSubdomain: function (tilePoint) {
 		var index = (tilePoint.x + tilePoint.y) % this.options.subdomains.length;
 		return this.options.subdomains[index];
@@ -397,12 +427,12 @@ L.TileLayer = L.Class.extend({
 		return tile;
 	},
 
-	_loadTile: function (tile, tilePoint, zoom) {
+	_loadTile: function (tile, tilePoint) {
 		tile._layer  = this;
 		tile.onload  = this._tileOnLoad;
 		tile.onerror = this._tileOnError;
 
-		tile.src     = this.getTileUrl(tilePoint, zoom);
+		tile.src     = this.getTileUrl(tilePoint);
 	},
 
     _tileLoaded: function () {