diff --git a/VisualEditor.php b/VisualEditor.php
index 85fbdd32ec..90e0d637fd 100644
--- a/VisualEditor.php
+++ b/VisualEditor.php
@@ -204,6 +204,7 @@ $wgResourceModules += array(
 			// Messages needed by VE in init phase only (rest go below)
 			'visualeditor-loadwarning',
 			'visualeditor-loadwarning-token',
+			'visualeditor-timeout',
 			'visualeditor-notification-created',
 			'visualeditor-notification-restored',
 			'visualeditor-notification-saved',
diff --git a/modules/ve-mw/i18n/en.json b/modules/ve-mw/i18n/en.json
index dbf7513de2..11ff60457c 100644
--- a/modules/ve-mw/i18n/en.json
+++ b/modules/ve-mw/i18n/en.json
@@ -158,6 +158,7 @@
     "visualeditor-linkinspector-suggest-redirect-page": "{{PLURAL:$1|Redirect page|Redirect pages}}",
     "visualeditor-loadwarning": "Error loading data from server: $1. Would you like to retry?",
     "visualeditor-loadwarning-token": "Error loading edit token from server: $1. Would you like to retry?",
+    "visualeditor-timeout":"It looks like full editing is currently unavailable; would you like to edit in source mode instead?",
     "visualeditor-mainnamespacepagelink": "Project:Main namespace",
     "visualeditor-media-input-placeholder": "Search for media",
     "visualeditor-meta-tool": "Options",
diff --git a/modules/ve-mw/i18n/qqq.json b/modules/ve-mw/i18n/qqq.json
index e71cadeb4a..2c293fe480 100644
--- a/modules/ve-mw/i18n/qqq.json
+++ b/modules/ve-mw/i18n/qqq.json
@@ -163,6 +163,7 @@
     "visualeditor-linkinspector-suggest-redirect-page": "Label for suggested redirect pages in the link inspector. Parameters:\n* $1 - number of redirect pages, used for plural\n{{Identical|Redirect page}}",
     "visualeditor-loadwarning": "Text (JavaScript confirm()) shown when the editor fails to load properly.\n\nParameters:\n* $1 - the error message from the server, in English. e.g. \"parsoidserver-http-bad-status: 404\"",
     "visualeditor-loadwarning-token": "Text (JavaScript confirm()) shown when the editor fails to load properly.\n\nParameters:\n* $1 - the error message from the server.",
+    "visualeditor-timeout":"Text (JavaScript confirm()) shown when the editor fails to load properly due to a 504 Gateway Timeout error.",
     "visualeditor-mainnamespacepagelink": "Name of a page describing the main namespace (NS0) in this project.\n{{doc-important|Do not translate \"Project\"; it is automatically converted to the wiki's project namespace.}}",
     "visualeditor-media-input-placeholder": "Place holder text for media search input",
     "visualeditor-meta-tool": "Text of tool in the toolbar the lets users set categories, language links and other page settings.\n{{Identical|Options}}",
diff --git a/modules/ve-mw/init/targets/ve.init.mw.ViewPageTarget.js b/modules/ve-mw/init/targets/ve.init.mw.ViewPageTarget.js
index d90bd2c082..def58298ac 100644
--- a/modules/ve-mw/init/targets/ve.init.mw.ViewPageTarget.js
+++ b/modules/ve-mw/init/targets/ve.init.mw.ViewPageTarget.js
@@ -315,10 +315,19 @@ ve.init.mw.ViewPageTarget.prototype.onLoadError = function ( jqXHR, status ) {
 	// The response.status check here is to catch aborts triggered by navigation away from the page
 	if (
 		status !== 'abort' &&
-		( !jqXHR || jqXHR.status !== 0 ) &&
+		( !jqXHR || ( jqXHR.status !== 0 && jqXHR.status !== 504 ) ) &&
 		confirm( ve.msg( 'visualeditor-loadwarning', status ) )
 	) {
 		this.load();
+	} else if (
+		jqXHR && jqXHR.status === 504 &&
+		confirm( ve.msg( 'visualeditor-timeout' ) )
+	) {
+		if ( 'veaction' in this.currentUri.query ) {
+			delete this.currentUri.query.veaction;
+		}
+		this.currentUri.query.action = 'edit';
+		window.location.href = this.currentUri.toString();
 	} else {
 		this.activating = false;
 		// User interface changes