diff --git a/lib/OpenLayers/Tile/Image.js b/lib/OpenLayers/Tile/Image.js
index 1a96d2bccf..c1c191a8ec 100644
--- a/lib/OpenLayers/Tile/Image.js
+++ b/lib/OpenLayers/Tile/Image.js
@@ -274,9 +274,19 @@ OpenLayers.Tile.Image = OpenLayers.Class(OpenLayers.Tile.BackBufferable, {
      * url - {String} or undefined to hide the image
      */
     setImgSrc: function(url) {
-        this.imgDiv.style.display = "none";
+        var img = this.imgDiv;
+        img.style.display = "none";
+        // Setting img.src to "about:blank" would cause a broken image icon in
+        // some browsers, but we only use it when style.display is set to
+        // "none", so we don't care. We need this to prevent old images or
+        // loading image placeholders to be shown when the image's display style
+        // is set to "" in the onImageLoad method, which is called just before
+        // the image is rendered in some browsers. Note that setting img.src to
+        // "" would cause a request for the current page location being sent to
+        // the server in most browsers.
+        img.src = "about:blank";
         if (url) {
-            this.imgDiv.src = url;
+            img.src = url;
         }
     },